Select two of the following retail companies that you would be interested in analyzing. Go to Yahoo Finance to find information on the company. To get general information about the company, you can go to the investor relations page for the company.
Nordstrum, Walmart, Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Amazon, Costco, Kroger, Home Depot, Lowe's
You will be identifying and discussing several items from the financial information that you find and making an investment decision. Your analysis should be professional level communication completed as a Word document. There are not specific formatting requirements but you should clearly label all items, use correct grammar, and proofread before submitting. Do not just copy and paste items from other sources.
Read the following requirements carefully and complete all items as instructed.
Prepare a brief summary (in your own words) of each company’s business or mission statement and then provide comparison information along with a brief discussion for each of the following items for the most recent fiscal year (Be sure that you are looking at annual and not quarterly information.) Keep in mind that comparing dollar amounts for different size companies can be misleading. You will need to convert the items to common size before comparing the companies results. Review Vertical and Horizontal Analysis and Ratio Analysis (Module 4).
Income Statement:
Total Revenues
Gross Profit
Net Income
Balance Sheet:
Total Assets or Total Liabilities & Stockholders’ Equity
Total Cash
Net Property, Plant, and Equipment
Statement of Cash Flows:
Operating Cash Flows
Investing Cash Flows
Financing Cash Flows
Total Cash … does it match the Balance Sheet Cash amount?
Go to the Key Statistics area and find at least 5 of the following pieces of important information (clearly label for each company):
Profit Margin
Return on Assets
Return on Equity
Quarterly Earnings Growth
Debt-to-Equity Ratio
Current Ratio
Book Value/Share
Market Value/Share
Beta
Dividend Payout Ratio
Find at least one qualitative information item from analysts’ opinions or the news and info section to help you make your recommendation on both quantitative and qualitative information. Explain how this qualitative information aided you in your decision.
Make a recommendation of the company that you would most like to invest in. Provide a brief discussion of your reason for selecting the company that you have chosen. Refer to your analysis to support your decision.