Overview
Accountants must be familiar with the amount of data required in the Annual Form 10-K filing and the Annual Proxy filing for publicly traded companies because they will use the data from these filings to research a company’s competitors. Accountants can even use the data from these filings in their personal life to research investment opportunities.
Scenario
In this milestone, you will prepare a valuation for a 1% minority shareholder on the assumption that your company is a “going concern” company, meaning that the company will be able to pay its financial obligations as needed for the foreseeable future.
Directions
In this milestone, you will provide a brief history and overview of the company you selected. Use your company’s most recent Form 10-K filing and SEC Annual Proxy filing from The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) website to gather the information described in the rubric criteria. You will also provide a brief summary of your findings for your valuation team members and include a visualization in the summary.
Note: Refer to this module’s Discussion for the list of companies to choose from.
Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:
Links
Provide the most recent SEC Form 10-K filing link for the company.
Provide the most recent SEC Proxy filing link for the company.
History and Overview
Provide a brief company history overview based on external research of the company. Consider the following questions to guide your response:
How long has the company been in business?
Who was the original founder of the company?
What significant changes to company leadership have occurred?
How has the company changed since its beginning? Consider expansion of locations or products/services, etc.
Identify all of the company’s major locations for their facilities and/or other properties.
Identify all of the customers recognized by the company.
List all of the names of the executive management team of the company.
Identify all of the competition recognized by the company.
Identify all of the major shareholders of the company.
Describe business risks recognized by the company.
Explain how the company is committed to environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts and sustainability.
Describe the company’s leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) status. Consider the following questions to guide your response:
Is the company currently LEED certified?
If the company is not currently LEED certificated, is it working toward becoming LEED certified?
Summary
Summarize your findings for the valuation team. Include the following details in your response:
Explain what you learned as you researched the company.
Identify the key points the valuation team needs to be aware of.
Create at least one effective visualization that supports key points. Include the following detail in your response:
Provide appropriate labels for the visualization(s).
If you need writing support, access the Academic Support module of your course.
What to Submit
Submit the Business Valuation Template with the Milestone One: Introduction section completed. The Introduction section should be an additional 4- to 6-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins in addition to the current page count. Sources should be cited according to APA style.
Note: You will be using this same file throughout all the milestones and your project.
Supporting Materials
The following resources support your work on this assignment:
Website: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
This website allows users to search for a publicly traded company and find their published financial statements. Use this website to find your company’s 10-K filing.
