Assignment task:
When giving raises and bonuses to PNC executives, the board's compensation committee compares the company's performance with a group of 8 high tech companies, its "Benchmark Group." The focus is primarily on stock price performance, but Ray wants Bill to go into the fundamentals of the companies' operations to give everyone a better feel for why stock prices have performed as they have. Thus, Ray wants Bill's team to provide an analysis of PNC's recent ratios, both their trends and their positions relative to the bench-mark group. Ray will then question the executives regarding why any ratios are below average and what might be done to improve them. He wants the board members, and especially the compensation committee members, to participate in this discussion.