This is the first of two Excel assignments you will complete in this course. Before you get started, be sure to watch the video.
Please see the below instruction and the Fin 320 PDF and the example excel sheet
Find a Publicly Traded Company
Go to Mergent Online, click on GO, and then click on Mergent Online in the results. This is the direct link: http://www.mergentonline.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/basicsearch.php Enter a company name in the Company Search – Enter symbol or Company Name field in the first section (top, left) and wait one moment for a drop-down menu to appear. If it is a publicly traded company (meaning its stock trades on an exchange where you can buy and sell shares), it will appear in the list below and you will see the company stock ticker symbol and name. Click on the company name in the list for details, and confirm that this is the company you intended to search for by reading the Business Summary. Review the information in the blue box at the top of the page and make note of the companys assigned Sector and Industry
Find Historical Stock Prices
Click on the Equity Pricing tab. The Time Period defaults to 3 years. Click on Report above the Controls box. Once you see the Historical Pricing, choose Download near the top right of the screen. Save the Excel file to your computer. Use the Close price to calculate the percent increase or decrease in the stock price over the seven weekday or three-year period (rate of return in rubric). For example, Apples stock price on 8/19/16 closed at $109.36. Seven weekdays earlier, on 8/11/16, it closed at $107.93. If you had bought 100 shares of Apple stock on 8/11/16 at $107.93 and sold them on 8/19/16 at $109.36, you would have earned $143 before taxes, which is a 1.32% rate of return. The calculation is (109.36-107.93)/107.93 x 100 which equals 1.32%. Apples stock price closed on 8/19/2013 at $72.53. The three-year rate of return is 50.77%.
Download Financial Statement Data
Select the Company Financials tab to retrieve financial statement data. Balance Sheet data will appear, and it defaults to Annual. Five years worth of data will appear, and you can change to 3 years by selecting that option to the right of the Annuals/Balance Sheet above the Balance Sheet data. Choose Refresh at the end of the next row. Choose Download near the top right of the screen. Save the Excel file to your computer. Change Balance Sheet to Income Statement and then Cash Flow to get your other financial statements.
Find a Competitor
Click on the Competitors tab. Select Public Global to the right of Competitor at the top of the list of companies. Click on company name to review the Business Summary to confirm that this is the company you are interested in. Review Sector and Industry listed at the top and determine if you want to use this competitor for your competitive analysis.
Find Industry Data
Click on the Competitors tab. Select Public Global to the right of Competitor at the top of the list of companies. Choose at least five competitors. Click on each company name to review the Business Summary to confirm that this is the company you are interested in. Review Sector and Industry listed at the top and determine if you want to use this competitor for your industry analysis. Determine what financial indicators you would like to compare and collect the needed data from the company financial statements for your ratio or Free Cash Flow (FCF) calculations. Average your calculated results to get an industry average (for example, add the five company FCFs together and then divide by five).
