Reference no: EM13341896

Stock Portfolio Analysis and consists of two (2) parts - an Excel-based assignment and a paper.

You have been assigned to evaluate the stock market performance of firms who manufacture accounting software products. Your evaluation will be based upon large- and-medium market firms. The firms are as follows:
Large Market Stocks:
Oracle Software (Oracle Corp: NASDAQ)
SAP (SAP AG: NYSE)

Medium Market Stocks:
Microsoft Great Plains (Microsoft: NASDAQ)

Small Market Stocks:
QuickBooks (Intuit: NASDAQ)
Peachtree (Sage Grp: LSE)

Part 1: Excel Spreadsheet Assignment

Scenario 1

You have been given $1,000,000 to invest the five (5) stocks. You must invest the $1,000,000 accordingly
No more than 35% of your investment will be in the Large Market stocks, with a minimum of 15% investment in any given stock
No more than 30% of your investments will be in the Medium Market stock, with a minimum of 15% investment in the stock
No more than 35% of your investment will be in the Small Market stocks , with a minimum of 15% investment in any given stock
The purchase date of the stock will be 6 months ago. Track your stocks' daily performance for the 90 trading days following the purchase date. During this time, you will note the gains and losses each day. At the end of the 90 days' tracking period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for each stock and your total investment at the end of the 90 days. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance. You will create a minimum of two charts.
Note: Your purchase must be in whole shares. For example, you cannot purchase 100.5 shares. You must purchase either 100 or 101 shares. For this reason, you may not total to exactly $1,000,000, but you will come close.

Scenario 2
You are now skeptical of the Medium Market stock. With that, you will now invest your $1,000,000 accordingly
No more than 50% of your investment will be in the Large Market Stocks, with a minimum of 20% investment in any given stock
No more than 50% of your investment will be in the Small Market Stocks, with a minimum of 20% investment in any given stock
The purchase date of the stock will be six (6) months ago. Track your stocks' daily performance for the 90 trading days following the purchase date. During this time, you will note the gains and losses each day. At the end of the 90 days' tracking period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for each stock and your total investment at the end of the 90 days. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance. You will create a minimum of two (2) charts.
Note: Your purchase must be in whole shares. For example, you cannot purchase 100.5 shares. You must purchase either 100 or 101 shares. For this reason, you may not total to exactly $1,000,000, but you will come close.

Scenario 3

You are now skeptical of the Large Market stock. With that, you will now invest your $1,000,000 accordingly
No more than 50% of your investment will be in the Medium Market stock, with a minimum 20% investment here
No more than 50% of your investment will be in the Small Market Stocks, with a minimum 20% investment here
The purchase date of the stock will be six (6) months ago. Track your stocks' daily performance for the 90 trading days following the purchase date. During this time, you will note the gains and losses each day. At the end of the 90 days' tracking period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for each stock and your total investment at the end of the 90 days. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance. You will create a minimum of two (2) charts.
Note: Your purchase must be in whole shares. For example, you cannot purchase 100.5 shares. You must purchase either 100 or 101 shares. For this reason, you may not total to exactly $1,000,000, but you will come close.

Scenario 4

You are now a believer of only the Medium Market stock. With that, you will now invest your $1,000,000 into that stock.
The purchase date of the stock will be six (6) months ago. Track your stocks' daily performance for the 90 trading days following the purchase date. During this time, you will note the gains and losses each day. At the end of the 90 days' tracking period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for the stock and your total investment at the end of the 90 days. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance. You will create a minimum of two (2) charts.
Note: Your purchase must be in whole shares. For example, you cannot purchase 100.5 shares. You must purchase either 100 or 101 shares. For this reason, you may not total to exactly $1,000,000, but you will come close.
Note
Do not worry about any commission fees or miscellaneous charges.

Assignment

Determine how much money you earned or lost with each stock on a daily basis.

Instructions on how to complete

There is no sample Excel workbook to use as part of the project, therefore you will create your own workbook. In creating your workbook, be sure to include the following data (however, other data will be stored in your scenario) in a columnar format.
Stock name
Stock symbol
Number of shares purchased / acquired
Stock price
Date of stock transaction
Start your scenario using the opening day price for each stock as your purchase price and use the closing stock price to calculate how much money you earned or lost each day.
At the end of your scenario, calculate the following for each stock in question.
The highest stock price for the period
The lowest stock price for the period
The average stock price for the period
The largest amount of profit (loss) earned for the period
The lowest amount of profit (loss) earned for the period
Track the stock for 90 consecutive days that the market is open.

Submit
One Excel workbook that contains each of the four (4) scenarios. You will need to use the appropriate Excel formulas and functions which will show the instructor how you derived your results.

Part II: Paper

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper that summarizes your findings from the four (4) scenarios as well as how using Microsoft Excel helped you with this process. Use the following outline:

1. Summarize the various accounting systems that each firm provides. Be sure to address the following for each firm: a. The various types of accounting systems it sells (e.g., Oracle sells Oracle Financials as well as PeopleSoft financials)
b. The industries that it markets itself to (e.g., most firms sell their products to banking firms, construction firms)
c. Explain how Wall Street views the firm. Is it positive? Negative? Why?
2. Analyze the results from the four (4) scenarios to determine how creditable your sources were and how your selection of sources
may have been improved.
3. Develop one (1) additional scenario that would have exceeded the results from your best scenario.
4. Determine how your findings could be used to better drive management decisions.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Discuss how automated accounting software can help management make better informed business decisions.
• Organize information between Word and Excel to communicate to internal and external users.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in microcomputer applications for accountants.
• Write clearly and concisely about microcomputer applications for accountants using proper writing mechanics.