Investment Analysis Assessment

1-1 

Preparation

An investment analysis has two fundamental
components:

1. 
A financial analysis, such as reviewing current financial ratios
within the company.

2. 
A non-financial analysis, which is reviewing a company’s
strategic vision, employee satisfaction, et cetera.

For this assessment, imagine that you are
looking into investing in a manufacturing company, such as a car company or a
steel company. Your goal is to complete an investment analysis of this company.
To do this, consider factors you would need to examine with regard to this
company that would tell you how strong of an investment this company would be.

Instructions

After considering a potential investment in a
manufacturing company, write an essay in which you address the following:

· 
What are some of the qualitative factors that must be considered
when selecting a company in which to invest?

· 
What financial ratios would you examine, and why?

· 
What non-financial factors would you examine, and why?

Use research from at least two references to
support your ideas.

Other Requirements

· 
Length: Your paper should be
1–2 typed, double-spaced pages. In addition, include a title page and
references.

1-2 Forecasting Assessment 

Instructions

The goal of forecasting the performance of a
company is to estimate the financial performance of a company over a selected
period of years. When forecasting a company’s performance, you look at both
financial and non-financial factors. For this assessment, consider a
hypothetical manufacturing company for which you might prepare a forecasting
analysis. Write a paper that addresses the following:

· 
How would you forecast revenue, profitability, and asset
management, such as inventory control and accounts receivable, for a
hypothetical manufacturing company?

· 
What ratios would you analyze?

· 
What techniques would you use? Why?

· 
What non-financial factors would be important in your analysis?

Use research from at least two references to
support your ideas.

Other Requirements

· 
Length: Your paper should be
1–2 typed, double-spaced pages. In addition, include a title page and
references.

1-3
Unit 1 Problems Assessment

Instructions

For this assessment, complete Problems 1–4.
You may need an HP 10B II Business Calculator to complete the following
problems. You may use Word or Excel to complete the assessments throughout this
course, but you will find Excel to be most helpful for creating spreadsheets.

Problem 1-1: Real Risk-Free Rate

Current 30-day T-bills are yielding 3.5
percent. Your accountant provided you with these interest rate premiums:

· 
IP = 1.5%

· 
LP = 0.6%

· 
MRP = 1.8%

· 
DFP = 2.15%

What is the real risk-free rate of return
based on this data?

Problem 1-2: Expected Interest Rate

For this problem, examine Treasury securities.
Considering the following numbers, what would the yield on 3-year Treasury
securities be?

· 
Real risk-free = 4%.

· 
Inflation expected at 1.5% for this year and 2% for the next 2
years.

· 
Maturity risk premium = 0.

Problem 1-3: Default Risk Premium

A Treasury bond maturing in 5 years has a
yield of 4 percent. A 5-year corporate bond has a yield of 7 percent. Consider
that the liquidity premium on the corporate bond is 0.5 percent. If this is so,
what is the default risk on the corporate bond?

Problem 1-4: Ratio Analysis

Using the XYZ Balance Sheet and Income
Statement linked in the Assessment Resources and the table provided below,
complete the following for XYZ Inc.:

1. 
Calculate the indicated ratios for XYZ.

2. 
Construct the DuPont equation for both XYZ and the industry.

3. 
Use your analysis to outline XYZ’s strengths and weaknesses.

4. 
Say XYZ had doubled its sales as well as its inventories and
common equity during 2013. Do you think this would this affect the validity of
your ratio analysis? No calculations are necessary.

Ratio	Industry Average	XYZ Inc.
Current	2.0x
Quick	1.3x
Days sales outstanding	35 days
Inventory turnover	6.7x
Total assets turnover	3.0x
Profit margin	1.2%
ROA	3.6%
ROE	9.0%