Financial Management Paper (Only need two page)

MGMT 310 Group Project

Spring 2015

Part 1 Due Date: Tuesday, March 3 by 5 pm

The project will involve picking a real-world, publicly traded firm (i.e. a firm with shares of stock that

trade on a major exchange such as the NYSE or NASDAQ) and applying many of the concepts we have

learned in MGMT 310. Your group can choose any firm that meets the above requirements.

The goal of this project is to replicate a variety of the different things that financial analysts and

managers are expected to do. The project will be composed of three parts. Below is the first part of the

project:

1. APPLYING CHAPTER 3: Choose a firm to research and prepare a report on this firm as if you

were a financial analyst paid to analyze the firm for your clients. This part of the project

should be about 7-10 double spaced pages (with regular margins) and include information such

as:

 A (brief) summary of the firm’s business and its descriptive characteristics (when was it

formed, how big it is, market share relative to competitors, key products, etc.)

 Recent financial performance trends (including analysis of the financial ratios that you

feel are the most important ones to consider for your firm)

 Comparisons to competitor performance

 Potential risks that could affect the firm’s future performance (regulatory changes, the

impact of a prolonged recession, etc.)

 Any recommendations you have for this firm (changing its debt/equity structure, its

current level of payouts, etc.) and your future revenue growth and profitability

projections for the firm (and the detail and reasoning behind those projections).

Please note that you can quote existing analyst reports or news articles in constructing this

report. However, I expect you to properly cite any sources that you use, and the majority of

your analysis in this report should be original work (based on your own research into the firm

and your examinations of their financial statements). If a group tries to pass off the work of

other authors or analysts as original work, that group will receive a zero on the assignment.

Including any (original) graphs, charts, and tables that you think would help illustrate your points

is a plus.

Grading will be based on the quality, presentation, and accuracy of your work.

A good place to start your research might be the internet links provided in the Chapter 1 notes

from this course.