Q
FINA Project Instructions
The objective of this project is to link the principles, practices and policies of financial management with the actual
performances of companies by using their financial statements and other published information about their
activities. More specifically, each student must select one “target” non-financial U.S. public corporation that will be
the primary focus of your report together with one additional U.S. public company in the same industry, which can
be used as a “competitor” for comparison. Find your selected “target” and “competitor” firms’ income statements
and balance sheet statements for their last two years (e.g. 2022 and 2023). You can find the financial statements on
Yahoo Finance. The following items are suggested outline for your report.
Introduction with General Information about the “target” Company (Note, the below bullet points must only be
completed for the target company)
the complete name of the selected company
the company’s industry
a brief description of the company’s business, its significant products, areas of operation, and events in
company history.
Assessment of the Corporation’s Financial Performance:
1. Present the balance sheet for the last two years (simplify and try to fit into one page) for your “target” and
“competitor” companies.
2. Present the income statement for the last two years (simplify and try to fit into one page) for your “target” and
“competitor” companies.
3. Compute the following ratios for the most recent and previous year for your firm as well as the competitor
firm (try to create a table that summarizes all the ratios for the “target” and “competitor” companies).
Profitability Ratios
Gross Margin
Operating margin
Net profit margin
Valuation Ratios
Price-to-Earnings ratio
Market-to-Book ratio
4. Analyze the “target” and “competitor” financial conditions based on the financial ratios calculated above. You
will need to evaluate your “target” firm’s financial condition by comparing each of the financial ratio you
calculate to its major competitor. In order to discuss your observations meaningfully, don’t forget to
comment on any trends in the “target” and “competitor” firms’ performance. Please use the written
disclosures in the report to discuss more about why changes occurred on a year-to-year basis for “target” and
“competitor” firms. Identify any strengths or weaknesses you find in the “target” and “competitor” firms.
The due date for the written report is June 24, 2024. Please include the following in the
submission of the project:
Cover and contents pages.
Do not exceed a total of 10 pages.
Make sure you answer all the questions and prepare your report based on the instruction.
Organization and completeness will count.
Be sure that the project is professional in appearance. A reader friendly report is always a good idea!
Note: I am not looking for a “perfect” report/assignment. The project will be graded based on effort.
