Purpose of Assignment 

This activity helps students recognize the significant role accounting plays in providing financial information to management for decision making through the evaluation of financial statements. This experiential assignment requires students to use ratios to evaluate and analyze a company’s liquidity, solvency, and profitability. 

Assignment Steps 

Resources: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), University Library, Library resources: Company Directories and Financials 

Tutorial help on Excel and Word functions can be found on the Microsoft Office website. There are also additional tutorials via the web offering support for Office products. 

Select a publicly traded, U.S. corporation with which you are familiar or one where you currently work or have worked in the past.

Research the company on the Internet and download the Income Statement, Statement of Shareholders’ Equity, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows.

Develop a minimum 700-word examination of the financial statements and include the following:

• Determine      the net income for the current fiscal year (FY). Is this income up or down      from the prior year? 
• Explain      the relevance of changes in net income to investors.
• Determine      the ending balance in shareholders’ equity. Why would organizations such      as labor unions be interested in this?
• Determine      the total value of assets. 
• Discuss      the relevance of the total value of assets to potential creditors and why      this is important.
• Compute      the return on assets. Discuss the relative profitability of the company      based on your results.
• Compute      the working capital and current ratio. Evaluate the relative liquidity of      the company based on your results.
• Compute      the debt to assets ratio and the free cash flow for your company. Analyze      the results and comment on the relative solvency of the company.
• Discuss      how the financial statements are used in your current role or a position      you would like to hold. How might these aid you in managerial decision      making?

Show your work in Microsoft Word or Excel. 

Complete calculations/computations using Microsoft Word or Excel. 

Include the four financial statements along with your assignment.