w1 aa

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 2 of your textbook.

Part 1
Throughout this course, you will examine various financial aspects of Deere & Company. These examinations will culminate in a summative evaluation of the company in your Final Project. Start by reviewing the Final Project instructions in Week 6. Then, download and review the appropriate quarterly and annual reports for Deere & Company based on the instructions below.

Files to Download

1. Download the quarterly reports for Deere & Company by completing the following:

• Go to the John Deere  investors’ web page,  Investor Relations  (Links to an external site.), on the Deere & Company website.
• Click to expand last year’s set of statements under the “Quarterly Earnings & Events” header in the middle of the page.
• Download the appropriate quarter earnings call file (“News Release and Financials”). Use the information below to determine the specific quarter for which you should download:
  • If this course’s start date is in January through February, download last year’s Quarter 1 financial statement (e.g., 1Q Earnings Call).
  • If this course’s start date is in March through June, download last year’s Quarter 2 financial statement (e.g., 2Q Earnings Call).
  • If this course’s start date is in July through September, download last year’s Quarter 3 financial statement (e.g., 3Q Earnings Call).
  • If this course’s start date is in October through December, download last year’s Quarter 4 financial statement (e.g., 4Q Earnings Call).

1. Download the annual reports for Deere & Company by completing the following.

• Go to the John Deere investors’ web page,  Investor Relations  (Links to an external site.), on the Deere & Company website.
• Click the “Show Archived Annual Reports” button under the Annual Report & Proxy Statement header toward the bottom of the page.
• Download the annual report from two years ago from the drop-down menu.

Note: Save these files for easy retrieval, as you will be referring to them throughout the course as well as in your Final Project.

Part 2
As you will explore throughout this course, financial data plays a critical role when it comes to making business decisions for an organization. There are four primary financial statements that are used. One is known as the statement of cash flows. For this discussion, assess the characteristics of the statement of cash flows by addressing the following questions:

• List the three primary sections found in the statement of cash flows.
• Explain how the statement of cash flows provides useful information that is not available in the other financial statements.
• Examine how this information can be useful when making business decisions.
• Looking at the financial statement you downloaded for Deere & Company in Part 1, identify the major inflows and outflows of cash for each section of the statement of cash flows.