Assignment:
Instructions for Accessing Public Company Financial Statements
Accessing through SEC website
1. Start by going to www.sec.gov.
2. Under the ‘Filings' Menu, select ‘Company Filings Search'
3. Type in the Company name and select ‘search'.
4. A screen listing all filings for the Company you searched will be shown. Make sure the Company listed in the blue box is the company you were looking for.
a. Note: For Target, you want ‘Target Corp' with CIK 0000027419
b. Note: For United, you want ‘United Airlines, Inc.' with CIK 0000319687
5. Type '10-K' into the ‘Filing Type' filter and select ‘search'. This will filter out all filings except for the 10-K which is the annual financial statements all public companies must submit.
6. Open the most recent 10-K by selecting the ‘documents' button next to the first 10-K shown and then selecting the first linked item in the next view (the one labeled ‘10-K').
7. Once the 10-K is open, use the table of contents to locate the ‘financial statements and supplementary data' (should be in Part II, Item 8 of all 10-Ks).
Accessing through Company website
1. Start by going to the Company's website and look for a link for ‘investors'.
• You can also access directly for most companies by using their direct investor website, such as ‘investors.target.com' for Target or ‘ir.united.com' for United Airlines
2. Select the ‘SEC Filings' link
3. Filter for ‘Annual Reports' or ‘Annual Filings'
4. Select the 10-K you want to open.
5. Once the 10-K is open, use the table of contents to locate the ‘financial statements and supplementary data' (should be in Part II, Item 8 of all 10-Ks).
Select one of the following companiesand obtain the company's financial statements within their Annual Report or 10-K for the appropriate year (see separate instructions for accessing financial statements).
Target - 1/28/17 and 1/30/16 - investors.target.com
United Airlines- 12/31/16 and 12/31/15- ir.united.com
Calculate the following metrics for the company selected for the two most recent years (noted above) and consider the trend in one of the categories. Make sure to show all calculations and clearly label the year for each calculation. Round answers to two decimal points (i.e. 56.78). Each question is worth two points each. Hint: Make sure to use the net incomefigure (which can also be called net earnings) that is used for EPS anytime you need net income:
1. Liquidity: Current ratio
2. Solvency: Debt to assets ratio
3. Profitability: Return on Assets
4. Profitability: Earnings per share (EPS) (Hint: Weighted Average Shares Outstanding, which is the same as average common shares outstanding, isincluded either as a line near the bottom of the Statement of Income/Earnings or in a ‘Earnings Per Share' footnote after the financial statements. Calculate EPS using the basicnet income and average common shares numbers, not diluted.)
5. Based upon the calculations performed above, comment on the trend in either the Company's liquidity, solvency, or profitability considering the year over year comparison (trend in the above ratios from oldest date to most recent).