Each student will choose a publicly-traded dividend-paying firm to analyze (General Electric). For your firm, you will complete a financial analysis, employing the concepts and tools discussed in Chapter 2 of the text. Complete the following steps for this portion of the project:
Obtain financial information for your firm for at least a 5-10 year time period. This information should include: income statements, balance sheets, cash-flow statements.
Provide a brief history of the firm: You will need to do background reading about the firm in order to gain insight into its performance and behavior. Focus this section on the "who, when, where and what" questions about your firm's history.
Complete financial measures of the firm for a multi-year time period (e.g. 5-10 years). This should include all measures described in Chapter 2 concerning the income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statements. (FOR THIS SECTION PRO FORMA INCOME, BALANCE AND CASH FLOW STATEMENTS SHOULD BE CREATED FOR THE NEXT 5-10 YEARS).....best guess is all that is required
Analysis of the financial performance of the firm. Once all financial measures have been determined, an analysis of this information is crucial to understanding how well the firm is performing and its current state of operations.
There will be two components to this analysis:
End-Point Analysis: Using the end-point methodology described in the document in the Reference Module of the Content Section of the course, compare the firm's current financial performance to its financial performance in the beginning time frame. Describe, discuss, and analyze the changes the you observe.
Industry Comparison: Obtain current industry data on the various financial measures you have determined for the firm. Compare the performance of the firm to the industry and describe/discuss your results.
Summarize your findings. Based on the financial analysis you have just completed, summarize your findings and draw conclusions about the changes in the financial performance/structure of the firm over time and about the current strengths of its operations.