Reference no: EM131332372

Individual Research Paper

Company Case Study Assignment

This assignment has a number of learning objectives, sources, and opportunities:

1. You will explore financial performance and investor information available fromvarious sources, such as the www.sec.gov website (commonly known as EDGAR).

2. You will gain an understanding of how a Form 10-K is structured and how companies describe their corporate objectives and risks for public disclosure.

3. You will research and analyze the objectives, strategies, and financial performance of a San Diego-based public company that may be a future client or employer.

4. You will utilize a "big-data" repository (Bloomberg, etc.) to capture meaningful data and present that data in a meaningful way.

5. You will use Excel to prepare typical tables and charts that support your analysis by leveraging data retrieved.

6. You will examine certain accounting risks that are specific to your company and gain a deeper understanding of the guidance related to at least one of the areas of accounting.

7. You will examine a proxy statement and gather data on executive management and the Board of Directors for your company.

8. You will examine the types of forms used by public companies to disclose information under SEC disclosure rules.

9. You will discover any SEC comment letters for your company and how firms respond to those letters.

10. You will listen to and analyze a recent earnings conference call for your company.

11. You will compile a meaningful and complete report on your company

This assignment is comprised of multiple components:

I. Individual Corporate Strategy Report
II. Individual Excel-based Financial Information tables/charts
III. Individual Company Report and Analysis
IV. Team Company Presentation and Executive Summary

Each student will be assigned a local company to research and analyze. Every report will contain:

1. Financial Objectives
2. Company Strategy
3. Financial Performance and(as assigned by professor) either
4. Investor Analysis and Recommendation, or
5. Recommendations to management to improve financial performance

Part I: Individual Company Report

EACH member of the team is required to prepare this portion of the assignment individually and without assistance from the other members of the group. Your primary source of information is likely to be the company's Form 10-K for the most recent annual reporting period. This can be found at www.sec.gov in the EDGAR system. Access to EDGAR can be obtained by clicking "Company Filings" in the upper right-hand corner of the SEC home page. You should not limit your research to only what you find in EDGAR. Most public companies host an "investor relations" site within the company's home page. Here you can find a wealth of additional information on your company. The SDSU library also has a great deal of information, some of which can be found at: https://library.sdsu.edu/guides/sub2.php?id=14&pg=14

Lastly, you will be using Bloomberg (see Part II below) to prepare the Excel portion of the company report. Frankly, the amount of information available in Bloomberg boggles the mind.You may find information on Bloomberg that can assist you in Part I and I encourage you to "explore."

I encourage you to explore all these sources as time permits.

Requirements:

A) Identify overall corporate objectives of your company and strategies implemented to achieve those objectives. To best understand and respond to the above question, I recommend that you first think through the overall business model of your company, including

• its targeted customers,
• products and/or services,
• markets,
• key business processes (internal allocation of resources),
• key alliance relationships (partnerships with external organizations), and
• external forces that impact the company's ability to meet its strategic objectives.

These items are a checklist of what is generally important to a company's economic operations BUT it is not exhaustive - you will need to analyze your company to identify what affects the overall business model - these items are a good starting place. To the extent you find them important, they should be described in your paper. To the extent you discover other important items, those items should also be in your report.

B) Identify the significantstrategic risks that potentially could impede your company from achieving its objective(s). The 10-K lists a large number of risks in Part IA

(you might want to look at this for a description of all the required parts of a Form 10-K: https://www.sec.gov/answers/reada10k.htm). Every company faces risks. Not all of these risks are significant. You need to consider what your company does and identify the risks that are unique to that industry or that company specifically. For example,

Adverse economic and geopolitical conditions and dislocations in the credit markets could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, cash flow and per share trading price of our common stock.

Almost all companies will have this risk disclosure (or something similar) - this is like saying "If a meteor hits earth and destroys all living things, our business may be adversely affected" - no kidding. Find something more unique and meaningful to your company and explain how it affects the strategies you identified in Part IA.

C) Risk assessment also occurs at the financial statement level. Identify what you consider to be significant accounting policy areas for your company."Significant" implies two characteristics: (1) the policy surrounds a transaction(s) that are material to the company and (2) there exists some complexity with regard to the accounting choice(s) the company is making. For example, almost all notes to the financial statements contain an accounting policy note (almost always Note 2) - most will also refer to an accounting policy on cash and cash equivalents. Unless your company uses cash in some unique fashion, this is a boilerplate disclosure that really is meaningless. Find a footnote that matters - one that has an effect on the strategies you described in part A. The MD&A (management's discussion and analysis) is also required to describe critical accounting policies; however, not all policies listed are really critical. Describe the policy and provide an explanation as to why the policies you selected are critical.

D) Select one(you can always select more if you think necessary) of the significant accounting policies and

• Explain why this policy is important to your company.

• Provide a detailed explanation of the technical guidance with respect to this policy.

• Describe how your company's choices with respect to that significant or risky accounting policy or estimate compare with that of your company's competitors?

• Are there other alternatives or choices that might be selected for these types of transactions?

• Do these accounting policies seem aggressive or conservative?

To respond to this question you are almost certainly going to have to review the accounting guidance on the type of transactions you selected - don't be shy - use the Accounting Standards Codification to gather the current guidance on your policy. Access to the ASC is posted on the course's Blackboard site.

For additional info on EDGAR go to: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/quickedgar.htm#.U9qvMuNkR8E).

The Bloomberg machines located in the Wells Fargo Financial Markets Lab located in the Love Library also have the SEC filings (see the Excel-based project in Part II for more information).

You will have a strong urge to copy and paste from the source documents - avoid the temptation. I want YOUR assessment and analysis of the public information provided not simply a regurgitation of the information in a 10-K.

The final report should be submitted as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file through the Turnitin system.

Part II. Individual Excel-based tables/charts

In addition to the written report, you will also need to prepare Excel-based tables and/or charts that present the information in the table below. Although this information can be found in a number of places, your best bet may be this source offered through the SDSU Library:
https://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://www.mergentonline.com/

Download the necessary information into a "base" Excel spreadsheet. You must then build the table and charts using links to the underlying data (no "typing" amounts into the final tables).

You should format your tables to maximize a professional presentation when printed. I have posted a video that walks through the creation of the first required table. I strongly recommend you watch it. I also cannot stress that you will produce a considerably better product if you allow for adequate time to (1) download the data, (2) create the tables and (3) format the tables. ALL TABLES AND CHARTS MUST BE CREATED IN EXCEL BY YOU.

Your tables and charts should look professional and should be incorporated, as necessary, into your final report.

Part III: Team Presentation and Executive Summary

You are required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation taking no more than 20 minutes to highlight each of the areas covered in your individual reports (choosing the most interesting or significant to highlight). Your scheduled presentation date will be assigned later in the semester. You will be graded using the Oral Communications rubric provided in Blackboard. Every team member must speak for more or less his or her proportionate share of the presentation (i.e., four team members, each must speak for about one-fourth of the presentation).Your group should also prepare an Executive Summary (MS Word or pdf file) no longer than 2 - 3 pages.

Groups that are NOT presenting on a given day will be assigned one of the presentations (executive summary) to review to generate meaningful questions on the analysis. A portion of your group's grade will be assigned based on the quality of the questions asked in the Q&A portion of the presentations. Questions should be submitted to your instructor by the due date listed below.

All students will also be asked to prepare a peer evaluation of each other group member presenting. Failure to complete a peer evaluation will result in a reduction of your individual points on this assignment.

Presentation Content

The team presentation is a synthesis of the best of each individual report, relevant Excel tables and/or charts, plus the following information:

1. As part of their "entity level" controls your company strives for effective executive leadership and strong corporate governance, including the Board of Directors and its committees. (a.) Describe the structure and titles of the executive leadership team and the composition of the Board of Directors (include brieflytheir background and the committees on which they serve within the Board of Directors).

2. In addition, assess the Company's commitment to strong corporate governance and diversity within its leadership structure and make any recommendations you would have as to the composition of the executive leadership team of the Board of Directors.

3. Find the investor relations website and listen to at least the most recent analysts' call on earnings. Consider the information available in Bloomberg as well. Include a description of the issues the analysts discuss with the company leadership and have provided in any analysts' reports. Provide your own interpretation.

4. Perform a review of the documents the company has filed with the SEC over the last 3 years. Prepare a table that list each type of document filed with the SEC and a brief description. Examine SEC filings to determine if any SEC comment letters or responses have been filed. Analyze the SEC comment letters and responses to identify areas of concern that the SEC has and whether those items have been adequately addressed by your company.

5. Provide a conclusion that includes a buy/hold/sell recommendation for your company's stock - provide a summary analysis that supports your recommendation.

6. Prepare and present recommendations to management designed to improve financial performance. Use your imagination here!

Thus, the group presentation includes a synthesis of the most important information, tables, and chartsincluded in the individual reports, and the new materials described above. Synthesis of the individual reports means examining each individual report and identifying the portions of each report that will result in the best final product. One report may have considered competitors very well while another considered an accounting issue.