Task: A report on the financial performance of a company.
-In session 1 you will be allocated/chose a company for the purposes of carrying out research and applying the concepts covered in class. This company will also be the one that you use as the basis for your final coursework report.
-Your task is to prepare a short 1,200 word report/bulletin for a potential investor in your allocated company. To do this you need to obtain the companys annual report and accounts, which you canaccess via the following link:
– http://markets.ft.com/markets/investorRelations.asp?segid=90058.
From the internet, find:
Any news stories about the company.
Historic share prices – use the closing price.
Financial Ratios.
Any qualitative issues, for example, governance, supply of labour, environmental issues.
A competitor company from the same sector.
There are a number of websites that provide useful information:
Ratios can be calculated from the companys Annual Report and Accounts and also downloaded from http://shares.telegraph.co.uk/. To do this you need to find out your company EPIC code by putting the company name in the box; Go to fundamentals; and then look at the bottom of the page for lists of ratios.
http://www.redmayne.co.uk
http://www.free-management-ebooks.com/dldebk/dlfi-performance.htm
Explore the Redmayne and Free Management eBooks sites for information about accounting ratios and what they mean. Using this information, construct charts showing the 5-year trend in the 4 accounting ratios that you chose to report on. What do these charts show? Try to interpret what they mean, and their significance with respect to the companys performance over this period of
time.
– The Report – Suggested Structure:
The report could be structured as follows:
Introduction (200 words maximum): Background to the company, including the business it is in and its main customers. You should also provide some details about a competitor company that you are making comparisons with.
Company Financial Performance (700 words maximum): This is the core theme of the report. In each section you should compare performance against a competitor company over a period of 3-5 years. Include tables and charts as necessary.
– Comment on the figures in the companys annual report and accounts and compare yearon-year trends, e.g. Sales, Profitability, Share Price, over a period of 5 years. Include a chart that shows share price performance over the 5-year period and comment on the trends you observe.
– Select 4 different accounting ratios/key performance indicators each from different ratio categories, ensuring that one of the ratios you select is a gearing ratio. Briefly describe the purpose of each ratio and then compare and comment on the trends in these ratios over a 5-year period.
– Your analysis will be enhanced by comparing the financial performance of your chosen/allocated company against another company in the same sector.
Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (200 words
maximum): discussion of qualitative issues and the companys approach to these.
– This section requires you to analyse the companys ethical approach to how it conducts its business. It could be in terms of their CSR profile or their compliance with accounting standards. In this section of your companys annual report you are unlikely to find anything negative as companies are only too pleased to put a positive gloss on things. To get a more balanced view, you will need to do some further research to find out if the company has been in the news over the accounting period for positive or negative reasons that relate to
qualitative issues.
Conclusion (100 words maximum): a summary of your key findings about the company and
whether or not you would recommend it as a potential investment
Notes:
If you exceed the word limit by more than 10% you may be penalised by to 10%.
The word limit does not include appendices, illustrations, tables or graphs.
Additional supporting materials can be placed in appendices at the end of your report, but these must be relevant and you must refer to these in the main body of the report.
Use short sentences and please do not write in the first person.
In a report of this nature it is not good practice to simply cut and paste large blocks of text or quotes, it is much better to re-phrase them and put them into your own words. If you do cut and paste large blocks of text your run the risk of potential plagiarism which if serious can result in penalties being applied (see: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/studentservices/exams/plagiarism-guidelines).
You must reference all your sources using the Harvard System of Referencing (see: https://libguides.bournemouth.ac.uk/bu-referencing-harvard-style).
Assessment Criteria:
— the coursework report (70%) will be assessed using the following criteria:
Knowledge and insight about the company context.
Understanding of financial analysis and its relevance.
Quality and relevance of content, including tabulated data and charts/diagrams and how these highlight the key issues being discussed.
The written presentation, its layout and structure, including spelling and grammar.
Application of course tools and frameworks and use of core texts/references. Use of the
Harvard Referencing System
p.s. I am a fist year student in buisness school so the writing style cant be graduate work. but intead, undergraduate.
this essay is 80% of mt grade and has to be perfect, so dont hesitiate to ask me questions
