Final project ws | BUS401 | Ashford University

Many investment banks employ analysts to write equity research reports on public companies to advise their clients on their stock investments. In many cases, an initial equity research report is 20 to 50 pages long! For this class, you will focus on only three of the many important sections typically included in an equity research report. Thankfully, your Mini Equity Research Report will be much shorter than those published by investment banks! 

In Week 1, you chose a publicly traded company to use throughout this class for the Mini Equity Research Report. In the first section of the Mini Equity Research Report, you evaluate the historical financial performance of the company (Week 1). In the second section of the Mini Equity Research Report, you evaluate the company’s performance using common financial ratios, and you compare the company to the competitor’s performance with the same financial ratios (Week 2). Finally, in Sections 3 and 4 of the report, you develop a value for the company’s stock and compare your value to the current market price of the stock (Weeks 3 and 4). Based on the analysis you present in these four sections, you will develop your recommendation to buy, hold, or sell the stock of this company.

It is very rare for one company to have only positive facts. Most companies have some good facts and some weak facts. In Sections 1 and 2 of the Mini Equity Research Report, you will analyze a variety of financial data for your selected company. As the equity analyst, it is your responsibility to combine the positive and negative facts into one recommendation (buy, hold, or sell). It is important to consider the importance of each fact and acknowledge that there is no perfect answer. Your recommendation should be based on the strength of the positive facts while recognizing the risks from the negative facts.

This week, you will write the introduction (including your stock recommendation) and the conclusion of the Mini Equity Research Report. In addition, you will revise the four sections from the first four weeks of class and combine them into this Mini Equity Research Report. Finally, you will submit your final Appendices A, B, C, and D with the Mini Equity Research Report.

Prepare:

Prior to beginning work on this final project,

• Complete the Week 5 – Learning Activity: Understanding Cost of Capital.
• Review the feedback you have received on your assignments throughout this course.
• Locate and revise (if necessary) all of your assignments from Weeks 1 through 4.

Write: 

In your Mini Equity Research Report,

• Write an introduction. In your introduction, include the following:
  • State the name of the company and a brief description of what it does.
  • State the current market price per share and total market capitalization of the company.
  • State two key historical financial performance facts about your company (you can ascertain this information from your Week 1 – Assignment 3, Section 1: Financial Statement Analysis).
    • Categorize the overall financial performance as strong, neutral, or weak.
    • Justify your assessment based on the key facts.
  • Summarize (briefly) the ratio performance of the company.
    • Categorize the overall ratio performance as strong, neutral, or weak.
    • Justify your assessment based on the key facts.
  • Determine the valuation conclusion based on the constant growth formula in Week 4, using the required rate of return derived from the CAPM.
  • Determine your recommendation of buy, hold, or sell the stock of your chosen company.
• Include your revised Week 1 – Assignment 3, Section 1: Financial Statement Analysis.
• Include your revised Week 2 – Assignment 3, Section 2: Financial Ratio Analysis.
• Include your revised Week 3 – Assignment, Section 3: Dividend Analysis and Preliminary Valuation, Part 1: Dividend Analysis only
• Include your revised Week 4 – Assignment, Section 4: Valuation Conclusion.
• Write a conclusion. In your conclusion, include the following:
  • Summarize the analysis that was completed for the Mini Equity Research Report.
  • State your recommendation of buy, hold, or sell the stock of your chosen company.
  • Summarize the key facts supporting your recommendation, including your concluded stock price.
• Include Appendices A, B, C and D.

The Mini Equity Research Report,

• Must be eight to ten double-spaced pages in length including any tables or calculations (but not including title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA Style (Links to an external site.) as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Microsoft Word (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of project in bold font
    • Space should be between title and the rest of the information on the title page.
  • Student’s name
  • Name of institution (The University of Arizona Global Campus)
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name