math and fin

FIN 534

DISCUSSION 1

"Financial Planning and Agency Conflicts" Please respond to the following:

· * From the scenario, cite your forecasting conclusions that support TFC’s decision to expand to the West Coast market. Speculate as to whether or not the agency conflict discussed in the scenario could become a roadblock to your conclusions. Provide a rationale for your response.

· * From the mini case, recommend two (2) desired characteristics of a board of directors. Provide support for your response, citing the ways in which these characteristics usually lead to effective corporate governance.

DISCUSSION 2

"Distributions to Shareholders" Please respond to the following:

· * From the e-Activity, contrast the differences between a stock dividend and a stock split. Imagine that you are a stockholder in a company. Determine whether you would prefer to see the company that you researched declare a 100% stock dividend or declare a 2-for-1 split. Provide support for your answer with one (1) real-world example of your preference.

· * From the scenario, examine the dividend rate that TFC is paying in order to determine if the company should receive a rate adjustment. Suggest whether TFC’s dividends should either (1) stay the same; (2) be increased; (3) or go down. Provide a rationale for your response.

DISCUSSION 3

"Working Capital Management" Please respond to the following:

· Examine the key reasons why a business may not want to hold too much or too little working capital. Provide two (2) examples that illustrate the consequences of either situation.

· * From the scenario, analyze TFC’s cash budget to determine key methods in which the budget may be optimized (e.g., by renegotiating terms and conditions on some of its payables, etc.). If you believe that there is room for improvement, recommend key strategies for TFC to use in order to optimize its cash budget. If you do not believe that this is the case, provide a rationale for your response.

PART B

Assignment 1: Financial Research Report Due Week 9 and worth 300 points

Imagine that you are a financial manager researching investments for your client. Use the Strayer Learning Resource Center to research the stock of any U.S. publicly traded company that you may consider as an investment opportunity for your client. Your investment should align with your client’s investment goals. (Note: Please ensure that you are able to find enough information about this company in order to complete this assignment. You will create an appendix, in which you will insert related information.)

The assignment covers the following topics:

· Rationale for choosing the company for which to invest

· Ratio analysis 

· Stock price analysis

· Recommendations

Refer to the following resources to assist with completing your assignment: Stock Selection · Forbes – “ Six Rules to Follow When Picking Stocks ” · CNN Money – “ Stocks: Investing in stocks ” · The Motley Fool – “ 13 Steps to Investing Foolishly ” · Seeking Alpha – “ The Graham And Dodd Method For Valuing Stocks ” · Investopedia – “ Guide to Stock-Picking Strategies ” · Seeking Alpha – “ Get Your Smart Beta Here! Dividend Growth Stocks As ‘Strategic Beta’ Investments ” Market and Company Information · U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – “ Market Structure ” · Yahoo! Finance · Mergent Online  (Note: This resource is also available through the Strayer Learning Resource Center.) · Seeking Alpha  (Note: Also available through the Android or iTunes App store.) · Morningstar  (Note: You can create a no-cost Basic Access account.) · Research Hub, located in the left menu of your course in Blackboard.

Write a ten to fifteen (10-15) page paper in which you:

1. Provide a rationale for the stock that you selected, indicating the significant economic, financial, and other factors that led you to consider this stock.

2. Suggest the primary reasons why the selected stock is a suitable investment for your client. Include a description of your client’s profile.

3. Select any five (5) financial ratios that you have learned about in the text. Analyze the past three (3) years of the selected financial ratios for the company; you may obtain this information from the company’s financial statements. Determine the company’s financial health. (Note: Suggested ratios include, but are not limited to, current ratio, quick ratio, earnings per share, and price earnings ratio.)

4. Based on your financial review, determine the risk level of the stock from your investor’s point of view. Indicate key strategies that you may use in order to minimize these perceived risks.

5. Provide your recommendations of this stock as an investment opportunity. Support your rationale with resources, such as peer-reviewed articles, material from the Strayer Learning Resource Center, and reviews by market analysts.

6. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other similar websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

· Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

· Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

· Critique financial management strategies that support business operations in various market environments.

· Analyze financial statements for key ratios, cash flow positions, and taxation effects.

· Review fixed income strategies using time value of money concept, bond valuation methods, and interest rate calculations.

· Estimate the risk and return on financial investments.

· Apply financial management options to corporate finance.

· Determine the cost of capital and how to maximize returns.

· Formulate cash flow analysis for capital projects including project risks and returns.

· Evaluate how corporate valuation and forecasting affect financial management.

· Analyze how capital structure decision-making practices impact financial management.

· Use technology and information resources to research issues in financial management.

· Write clearly and concisely about financial management using proper writing mechanics.

MATH

DISCUSSION 1

"Building and Using Models"

Note: Online students, please select one of the two subjects to discuss.

· Imagine that you are a business manager for a mid-sized company. Propose one (1) overall strategy to build an effective business model in order to both monitor / control changes in business process and predict future business performance for your company. Provide a rationale (e.g., verification process) for your response.

· Per the textbook, in order to understand the causal relationship in business process, manager often asks “whys” to drill down the root cause of failures. Select one (1) project from your working or educational environment and propose at least three (3) “why” questions that you would ask in order to identify root cause of problem. Justify your responses.

DISCUSSION 2

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"One-factor-at-a-time (OFAAT) and  Design of Experiment (DOE)"

Note: Online students, please select one of the two subjects to discuss.

· Per the textbook, trying to understand factors that impact the outcomes of business process is an important aspect of improving business operations. Conventional wisdom plans experiment one-factor-at-a-time (OFAAT). Compare and contrast the main advantages and disadvantages of OFAAT and DOE and select the approach (e.g., OFAAT or DOE) that you would use in order to obtain effective business process. Provide a rationale for your response. 

· Select one (1) project from your working or educational environment that you would apply the DOE technique for the work process. Next, analyze the overall manner in which you would utilize DOE to manage and improve the work process of the project in question. Provide a rationale for your response. 

DISCUSSION 3

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"Confidence Interval"

Note: Online students, please select one of the two subjects to discuss.

· Use the Internet or Strayer Library to research articles on confidence interval and its application in business. Select one (1) company or organization which utilized confidence interval technique to measure its performance parameters (e.g., mean, variance, mean differences between two processes, etc.). Give your opinion as to whether or not the utilization of such a technique improves business process for the company or organization that you selected. Justify your response.  

· Select one (1) project from your working or educational environment in which you would use the confidence interval technique for the process. Next, speculate on one to two (1-2) challenges of utilizing such a technique in the process and suggest your strategy to mitigate the challenges in question.