Stock exchange information

Stock exchange information

Project description
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS:

1.The project will be completed in teams of up to 3. Each team must select a U.S. corporation that is publicly traded on a major U.S. stock exchange. This company must have been traded publicly for at least one year. Teams may not use financial institutions, holding companies or investment firms for their company.

2.After selecting a company, the team may need to obtain a copy of their most current Annual Report. The list of approved companies includes many companies that post a copy of their annual report to their web site (usually as a .pdf or html file). A printed .pdf file of an annual report is acceptable. The annual report for the company selected must be turned in with Part II of the Course Project.

3.Teams will download documents including the most recent:
Quarterly report (Form 10-Q)
Proxy statement (DEF-14A)
Form 10-K

Note that you only need print the Executive Compensation table from the Proxy Statement (DEF 14A).

Teams can download the company filings from the SEC EDGAR (electronic data gathering and analysis) database.

Go to the Securities and Exchange Commission home page (www.sec.gov), and select Search for Company Filings to go to the EDGAR database. Select Companies and Other Filers and enter the company name.

4.Teams must use the internet to find the daily closing stock price and the number of shares traded for the common shares of their company and plot the last 12 months for both. A useful site to obtain this information is: http://finance.yahoo.com. Select Chart and enter the ticker symbol in the symbol lookup. Select Historical Quotes: daily at the bottom of the page. The historical prices are shown, with an option to download to a spreadsheet at the bottom of the page.

Download the daily closing prices and volume of shares traded into a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel). Use the graph function to plot the PRICES and SHARES traded each day into two charts. You must prepare the charts yourself to receive full credit.Copying an existing graph is not acceptable. The last page of this handout provides an example of the two charts.

5.The course project will be completed in two parts. For Part I teams answer the questions shown on the form provided below. In addition to the questions, teams will submit the following materials for Part I:
Two charts: daily closing stock prices and number of shares traded each day for the last twelve months
A copy of the Executive Compensation Table from the proxy statement (DEF 14A)
A copy of the most recent quarterly report (10-Q) financial statements and notes only.

6.For Part II teams answer the questions shown on the form provided below and prepare a memo. The memo must be type written, using one-inch margins, single spacing and 12 point font. In addition to providing answers to the questions, students will submit the following materials for Part II:
Memo to potential investors and
The original annual report or partial Form10-K.

7.Additional administrative requirements:
Do not turn in this page.
Fasten loose pages and documents together.
Keep a copy of your reports as a precaution.
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Added on 13.07.2015 00:52
Hello ACG 2021 students,

For the project, to be environmentally friendly, you only need to hand in several pages to me, and email me the whole bunch of financial statements.

Print the following files out and hand in during class:
1. Cover Page Part I and II;
2. Memo;
3. Two charts for volume and price.

E-mail the following files to [email protected]:
1. Quarterly report (Form 10-Q);
2. Proxy statement (DEF-14A);
3. Annual report (Form 10-K).

You can choose to attach the financial statement in your email, or simply email me the web link from SEC website.

For Part I, use form 10-Q (quarterly report) as reference. For Part II, use form 10-K (annual report) as reference.

For the memo, you need to use ratio analysis, with comparison to industry average or competitors. Some of you did comparison, but you did not provide me with the numbers, which will not convince me that you calculated or searched for them instead of just making them up.

You might want to avoid simply writing these:
1. “Apple is innovating, … (more adjectives). (more paragraph speaking high of Apple)….Therefore, we recommend BUY” Avoid simply telling story. For Marketing, Management or Strategy courses, this might be OK. But for an accounting project, we make recommendations based on data.
2. “Apple”s Net Income is XXX, ROA is XXX, Growth rate is XXX. So we can see Apple is doing a good job.” — Avoid just analyzing a single company. Without comparison to others, it is difficult to judge a company”s performance.
3. “Apple”s ROA is XXX, ranking highest among its competitors.” — Avoid hiding important numbers. Show me the evidence of financial ratios for its competitors. Dont even think about making up numbers.

A good idea to follow is: “Apple”s ROA is 20%, higher than the industry average of 15%, Google”s 18%, and Samsumg”s 10%, so we believe Apple is doing a good job.” The numbers here are fake just for illustration, and the example is just telling you a basic idea. Your write-up should be professional.