Finance

Part I: Investing Behavior: What are the various types of investors? Complete the interactive investor profile questionnaire at http://pfp.missouri.edu/research_IRTA.html. According to this instrument, what kinds of investments should you consider? Write an introduction to your essay that provides a profile for yourself as an investor. What else can you find out about investing behavior–for example, does your profile change over time as you age or does it remain the same? How would your profile assist you and your financial advisor or investment advisor in planning your portfolio? Part II: Recognizing Fraud What is a pyramid scheme exactly? Have you ever participated in or invested in such a scheme? Have you ever been a victim of one? Research and discuss this topic in this part of your project. According to research, why can it be difficult to detect a pyramid scheme? What are some possible tip-offs to this kind of fraud? Why are pyramid schemes unsustainable? Who are the victims? Provide a diagram illustrating the dynamics of pyramid schemes. Part III: Famous Scandals Survey the Web site of a 2009 60 Minutes CBS broadcast on the Madoff affair, which includes articles, video, and links at https://youtu.be/s68FR1MXT8Q. According to this site, who discovered the Madoff fraud and how? Who were Madoff’s victims? Visit the support group Web site created for the victims at http://berniemadoffponzisupportgroup.blogspot.com/. In the CBS video, how did Madoff defend himself? Read a Read a Journal article at the following Hyperlink that explains how Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was able to succeed. How did investor biases contribute to this success? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoff_investment_scandal How did biases in regulatory oversight contribute to the fraud? Sample some of the videos of the congressional hearings on the Madoff scandal at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOKSkaQoF_I. Why did representatives and senators focus their criticism on the Securities and Exchange Commission? Use the template provided. Follow APA7 format, including a title page, introduction, conclusion, citations, and a minimum of three scholarly references (not Wikipedia or Investopedia). See the attached PPT file. Turnitin report of no more than 20% similarity index is required. Your final project should be 5 pages in length, not included title page, abstract, or references.

Instructions The principal driver in creating a budgeted income statement sometimes referred to as a pro forma statement, is the sales forecast as discussed above. A projected increase in sales will require additional assets. Those assets (i.e., increase in accounts on the left-hand side of the balance sheet) must be paid for with corresponding increases in liabilities and equity (i.e., increases in accounts on the right-hand side of the balance sheet). The percent of sales method is most often used to forecast future asset, liability accounts, and equity (this assumes that the growth of all accounting elements follows the same trend line). For this process, the direct financing accounts on the right-hand side of the balance sheet (in particular, notes payable, long-term debt, preferred stock, and common equity are kept constant). The resulting difference between projected total assets and projected total liabilities and equity is the company’s future need for external funding. The growth rate in sales that results in the future need being zero is called the organizations’ sustainable growth rate. For this assignment, you are the head of the budget committee for the chosen company from your previous assignments. Create a chart to convey the information in a chart or graphic format for each of the three stated assumptions below. The assumptions below will become part/support for the company strategic plan being developed. Incorporate each of your charts into a narrated PowerPoint presentation for the full strategic development committee. This mid-term assignment has three related parts: Create pro forma statements for your chosen company for next year. Estimate the sustainable growth rate for your company. Perform a SWOT analysis on your company, using lessons you learned in Weeks 1 through 4 concerning microeconomics, macroeconomic, financial analysis, and financial forecasting. Be sure your presentation includes the following details: Estimate the sales growth rate for the company for the next annual accounting period. Explain each step of your estimation process. Create proforma income statements and proforma balance sheets for your company for the next annual accounting period using the percent of sales method. Assume that all income accounts increase as a percent of sales, all asset accounts increase as a percent of sales, spontaneous liabilities increase as a percent of sales, and all financing accounts remain constant. The statements you create will be the initial round in order to determine the amount of working capital (cash, accounts receivable and inventory are the main categories of working capital) needed. Clearly identify what your statements indicate is the need for external short-term liabilities funds for the next annual accounting period (assume that current and quick ratios remain the same as prior years). Estimate the sustainable growth rate for your organization. Assume that all income accounts increase as a percent of sales, all asset accounts increase as a percent of sales, spontaneous liabilities increase as a percent of sales, and all financing accounts remain constant. Also, assume that the company will pay the exact same dollar amount in dividends in the next annual accounting period that it paid during the most recent period. Be sure to describe all steps in the process and clearly indicate the growth rate (as a percentage) that you find. Compare the sustainable growth rate you determined to the average annual growth rate in sales the company has had over the past 2 years. Is the average annual growth rate greater than or less than the sustainable growth rate? Assess this relationship. Conduct a SWOT analysis of your company (much information about each of the SWOT elements will be found in the text description at the beginning to annual report). Use one of the many templates (tables) for SWOT that you can find online. Your SWOT analysis should include at least three entries for each element in the table. The entries should be some combination of microeconomic (related to demand for the product, cost functions, competition, etc.), macroeconomic (related to projected growth in the overall economy, inflation, unemployment, etc.), financial past (based on your analysis in week three), and projected financial future (based on your analysis in Week 4). Write a one-paragraph description of each element in your SWOT table. Specifically indicate why you believe the chosen element is a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity or Threat. Length: 12-15 slides with notes, including title and reference slides Notes: 200-350 words per slide

The credit crisis of 2007-2009 and the after effects were truly global. The federal government of the United States, as well as the federal governments of other countries, took actions to address the issues uncovered by the crisis. For this assignment, you will address those actions taken by the United States AND one other country (i.e. Germany, United Kingdom, etc.).

Purpose of Assignment : The purpose of this assignment is for students to utilize critical thinking skills to understand the information contained within a company’s financial statements and how they articulate with each other. Assignment Steps: Develop a 700-word evaluation (keep it right around 550 words) on the Overview of Financial Statements using the following as guides: Locate a financial statement (income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flow) for a public company. If possible, choose a company similar to one you wish to create or work for one day. You will find the information needed on their annual report. Use numbers from the most recent annual report, not a quarterly report, but the annual report. What do the financial statements say about this company in general? Identify the salient information contained in the financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flow). Identify the company’s net income (income statement), total assets (balance sheet), and total net cash flow (statement of cash flow). I’m looking for numbers here. Explain how financial statements (income, balance, statement of cash flow) are connected to each other. Examine the importance and the relevance of financial statements for the entrepreneur. Cite a minimum of two peer reviewed reference from the University Library. Format the assignment consistent with APA guidelines.

Directions: Your job as Finance Director is to recommend to the City Council of Masstown if it should contract out for ambulance service or keep it as is? Please write a one page memo making your recommendation – you can include some basic costs data as well. Deliver: Grammatically correct with no misspellings Relevance: Paper accurately executes the task. cites additional references related to topic; considers additional questions and comments Expression within the Abstract: Expresses opinion and idea in an organized, clear, and concise manner with connection to topic Format and Directions: Justification is appropriate and provides clear reasoning based on content presented in the module as well as credible outside sources; cited appropriately Complete: Answers all questions accurately and completely.

Your assignment is to think through the things you want to accomplish in life. This is not a short-term assignment, and it will require you to work and contribute to it during the course of this Summer II session. The purpose of this assignment is to write down your goals for your future and determine where you want to be. Be very specific with the goals you set. Your goals may include graduating with your MBA, having children, investing in their college funds, buying a home/vacation home, retiring with $1 million, taking a round-the-world vacation, etc. As you think through your goals, recognize that there are many different ways to organize them. You can organize them by time frame: short/medium/long-term. You can organize them by responsibility: family, work, education, church, and so on. Or you can organize them by priorities, with your highest-priority goals first. As you read through each chapter in the text, think of how you can apply your newly acquired knowledge to further develop your personal financial plan. If you need some help with applying the concepts you come across to your personal life, look at the end of chapter Action Plans. Each chapter closes with an Action Plan that should help you put your knowledge into action. For example, in Chapter 1 we talk about choosing a career, preparing for the unexpected (as with economic downturns) etc. As you look over your previously listed goals, you may want to include information about your career path that may impact your goals, as well as contingency plans should you find yourself in another 2008 or 2020 economic situation. In Chapter 2 we discuss the use of personal financial statements as well as budget development. After you read Chapter 2, you may decide to add elements of certain financial statements or a working budget to your personal financial plan. The objective is to add/modify your personal financial plan as you acquire more tips/suggestion/recommendations given your newly acquired knowledge base throughout the semester. By the time you reach the end of Summer II, you should have a well thought out and developed Personal Financial Plan. The following are key things to consider as you develop your financial plan: 1. I’m not overly specific on the style I’m looking for (first person vs. third person, inclusion of graphs, preparation of videos, etc.) because I want students to develop their plans as they best see fit. In the past, I’ve had students simply put together a 10-page write-up (not the best – I would advise using some tables and charts be included), I’ve had others include appendices with tables and charts to help explain their plans, and I’ve even had a student develop a short video to go along with their financial plan. You have free reign with regard to how you want to develop this. 2. The non-negotiables are as follows: A 5-page minimum is required for Part 1 of your Financial Plan, and another 5-page minimum is required for Part 2 of your Financial Plan. It shows me you’ve put effort into your plan and have not just stayed up overnight to complete it. If you have been setting aside time each week to work on it as you read through new content, it should not be overwhelming. Remember, a minimum means you are always free to write MORE THAN the 5 pages mentioned. Please keep in mind that “quoted” text from other sources does not contribute to your overall page-writing minimum. I want your thoughts, your ideas, your goals, and your content written out. You may incorporate some graphs, tables, and calculations to show how you plan to carry out your financial plan, but these should be proportional to the amount of writing and explanations I want to see from you. You can also include some of these tables, graphs, and pictures as appendices to your plan. If you submit only 4 pages for Part 1 of your Personal Financial Plan, I will deduct 5 points right off the top. If you submit only 3 pages for Part 1 of your Personal Financial Plan, I will deduct 10 points right off the top. If you turn in anything less than 3 pages, I will not grade your assignment and you will receive a 0 for it. The same rules apply for Part 2 of your Personal Financial Plan. I also don’t want to see only pages upon pages of excel spreadsheets by the time you are through. I’m looking for written explanations of what you’re presenting. It’s important to not just show a table or graphic, but to be able to explain well, in writing, what you’re trying to achieve. Please also don’t think that if you’ve performed really well throughout the semester you can get away with turning in a financial plan that doesn’t meet the length requirement and take the point deduction without worry. The points for not having the appropriate length are just that. Points lost for not meeting minimum length requirements. Chances are that you will also have more points deducted for not having enough substance in the pages you do provide. 3. I have found that most students start off with prioritizing their goals (either by importance to them or by short vs long term criteria). For example, you may have started your financial plan by simply listing a few of your goals: pay for my MBA, set up college funds for my kids, buying a larger home, taking that dream vacation, investing more money, retiring at 65, ensuring I have the right kinds of insurance to cover needs, making sure my family gets their inheritance without issue, etc. You can then use the information you’ve acquired throughout the semester to help you develop ways to achieve those goals. For example, you may have decided to create a budget after reading chapter 2. This would be something you can discuss in your write-up (and even provide an example of your budget in your appendix). You may have then read Chapter 3 and decided that you can use time value of money calculations to help determine how much you need to set aside each month/quarter/year in order to meet your education and retirement objectives. You should show me the calculations you’ve worked on in order to determine these things (I really need to see some time value of calculations in your writeup so that I can see that you’ve fully understand this very important concept). As you read each new chapter, you can discuss things that are important to do when looking for a home. You can detail tax considerations, credit and loan usage, and the things you need to consider when making insurance decisions. You can discuss the types of investments you are choosing and why, and you can discuss important things to consider when developing your will and testament. 4. Please review your writing. If I can’t understand what you’ve written, I can’t grade it. Get it reviewed by the writing lab or by a trusted (and capable) friend if you have concerns about your writing skills. I will deduct up to 5 points per each financial plan (part 1 and part 2) if there are too many grammatical and spelling errors. 5. Support your statements. If you tell me you plan to set aside $250 each month for retirement, tell me why/how you’ve arrived at this number. If you tell me a particular kind of insurance is what you prefer, tell me WHY. It’s not enough to just say you like or don’t like something. Support your views. Lack of support could result in a loss of up to 25 points. 6. One final thing I will mention is that I’m looking for a good cross-section of topics. If you spend your entire assignment simply discussing retirement and estate planning, I’m going to assume you’ve only really spent time studying the last 2 chapters required for the semester. Be sure your financial plan covers a breadth of topics, or you can lose up to 15 points for Part 1 and another 15 points for part 2. Since we cover 7 chapters in Part 1 of your Personal Financial Plan, I would like you to at least cover material from 5 of those chapters (you may cover more – i.e. material from each chapter if you’d like). Since we cover 9 chapters for Part 2 of your Personal Financial Plan, I would like you to at least cover material from 7 of those chapters in your plan. 7. The remaining points on the table will be rewarded based on my personal assessment of your financial plan.

Your probationary period at the Cosmo K Manufacturing Group continues. Your supervisor, Gerry, assigns you a project each week to test your competence in finance. The company is considering the addition of a new office machine that will perform many of the tasks now performed manually. For this week’s task, Gerry has given you the responsibility of evaluating the cash flows associated with the new machine. He has requested the report to be delivered within the week. Evaluation of a New Office Machine The Cosmo K Manufacturing Group currently has sales of $1,400,000 per year. It is considering the addition of a new office machine, which will not result in any new sales but will save the company $105,500 before taxes per year over its 5-year useful life. The machine will cost $300,000 plus another $12,000 for installation. The new asset will be depreciated using a modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) 5-year class life. It will be sold for $25,000 at the end of 5 years. Additional inventory of $11,000 will be required for parts and maintenance of the new machine. The company evaluates all projects at this risk level using an 11.99% required rate of return. The tax rate is expected to be 35% for the next decade. Tasks: Answer the following questions: What is the total investment in the new machine at time = 0 (T = 0)? What are the net cash flows in each of the 5 years of operation? What are the terminal cash flows from the sale of the asset at the end of 5 years? What is the NPV of the investment? What is the IRR of the investment? What is the payback period for the investment? What is the profitability index for the investment? According to the decision rules for the NPV and those for the IRR, is the project acceptable? Is there a conflict between the two decision methods? If so, what would you use to make a recommendation? What are the pros and cons of the NPV and the IRR? Explain your answers. Submission Details: Show the data used and the calculations for each question in a Microsoft Excel sheet and the analysis in a Microsoft Word document.

Prepare a (approximately) 200 word summary of the textbook material you have read this week on Chapter 9. This summary should be entered in your learning journal this week. Please see the textbook uploaded for the other Finance order.

IMPORTANT: Minimum 4 scholarly journal article sources in APA (including in-text parenthetical citations) needed. No title page, no abstract, nor running header needed. INSTRUCTIONS: (for full article: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/21/business/zillow-rich-barton-risk-takers/index.html) Zillow is Losing Millions on Selling Homes. But Its Risk-Taking CEO Isn’t Worried 14 days ago 7 replies Melanie Baker Charles Benedict Dare Abiola Last 18 hours ago Key words and Definitions Risk – the possibility of financial loss. Risk aversion – an individual’s tolerance for taking risks. Risk/return tradeoff – the financial principle that states you must be compensated with the possibility of higher returns before you are willing to accept higher levels of risk. Summary: Key Points in the Article. The online real estate matchmaking site Zillow recently launched a new initiative. In 2018 Zillow moved from being just an online advertising platform to a firm that buys properties directly from sellers. Interested sellers can contact Zillow, receive an offer, and close within a week or two. Zillow does light cosmetic work and resells the homes. Zillow CEO Rich Barton calls the model, dubbed iBuying, a “new frontier in real estate.” Barton’s vision is to make selling a home as easy as selling a car. Zillow wants to remain the best-known site for real estate and smaller competitors were beginning to offer iBuying, essentially forcing Zillow into this market. Zillow charges sellers a 7.5% fee if they decide to sell directly to Zillow. Comparable real estate sales commissions are about 6% but it can takes months, or even years, to sell a home. The venture is not without risk. Zillow loses an average of $1,512 plus interest expenses and holding costs on each home it buys, or a total of $312 million in before tax losses for this division in 2019. However, Barton believes the venture will generate $20 billion in revenue in the next three to five years. Zillow intends for the program to be profitable and serve as a gateway into other revenue sources including providing title insurance and earning referral fees. Thinking Critically Questions Regarding the Financial Manager’s Primary Goal from the Lecture Note: 1. Is Zillow CEO Rich Barton willingness to lose money on iBuying consistent or inconsistent with “Selecting value creating projects” 2. What are the risks Zillow faces with their strategy? Is it a smart financing decision? 3. What are some synergistic benefits that might emerge from iBuying?

Summary: Review and compare the financial statements and annual reports of The Home Depot and of Lowe’s companies Inc. of fiscal year 2012, in comparison to fiscal 2011, according to the below structure and questions: Analyze the balance sheet of both companies. Write a summary that includes important points about each company that an analyst would use in assessing the financial condition of The Home Depot and of Lowe’s as one of its competitors. Analyze the income statement of The Home Depot and of Lowe’s. Write a summary that includes important points that an analyst would use in assessing the profitability of The Home Depot and of Lowe’s as one of its competitors. Analyze the consolidated statements of cash flows for The Home Depot and for Lowe’s for fiscal years 2012, 2011 and 2010. Write a summary that includes important points that an analyst would use in assessing the companies’ relative abilities to generate cash flows and the appropriateness of the use of cash flows Using data, common size statements, ratio and trend calculations for The Home Depot and Lowe’s, write a comprehensive comparative analysis of the companies over the major areas: Short term liquidity, operating efficiency, capital structure and long term solvency, and profitability. Perform the Dupont analysis and compare variation of The Home Depot and Lowe’s ROE, Return on Equity, as the combined effect of profitability, liquidity, and financial leverage.