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).

For your municipality find the most recent operating budget. What is the total operating budget for your municipality? How much revenue comes from property tax, sales tax, and the LGDF? What other sources of revenue do you find interesting? What are the three largest expenditures for the municipality and how much are they? What if any information can you find regarding the municipalities financial position given the Covid situation? How would you re-balance the budget? Share any other insights you find interesting.

Assignment Questions: What is the primary difference between financial statement analysis and operating indicator analysis? Why are both types of analyses useful to health services managers and investors? Should financial statement and operating indicator analyses be conducted only on historical data? Explain your answer. Define Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and dashboards. What is their value? How are KPIs and dashboards used in financial condition analysis? What is Economic Value Added (EVA), and how is it measured? Why is EVA a better measure of financial performance than are accounting measures such as earnings per share and return on equity? What does EVA tell managers about how to achieve good financial performance? References Brinson, S. (2020). HA 343: Healthcare Financial Management. Lecture Notes Lesson 8. Saint Joseph’s College, Standish, ME. Gapenski, L. C. & Reiter, K. L. (2016). Healthcare finance: An introduction to accounting and financial management (6th ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press

Intuitively describe the method of NPV. Intuitively describe the method of IRR. Intuitively describe the method of MIRR. If you can only choose one method for capital budgeting, which one would you choose, NPV, IRR or MIRR?

Negotiable Instruments Before beginning work on this week’s discussion forum, please review the link “Doing Discussion Questions Right,” the expanded grading rubric for the forum and any specific instructions for this week’s topic. The discussion assignment consists of two parts. Select one of the questions for Part 1 and answer Part 2. By the due date assigned, submit your answers to Part 1 and Part 2 to this Discussion Area. Post the answers to both parts in one thread. Label your answers Part 1 and Part 2, but do not repeat the scenario text in your responses. Start reviewing and responding to your classmates as early in the week as possible. You should review and critique the work of other students as outlined in the expanded rubric by the end of the week. Discussion Question Part 1 Select one of the scenarios listed below and explain the best solution for each. Include comments related to any ethical issues that arise. You should locate at least one scholarly source from the SUO Library or one case that has been decided or is currently pending to support your answer. Scenario 1 – Liability on Negotiable Instruments Porter Cable hired a bookkeeper, Gerald Smith, and gave him general authority to issue company checks drawn on First Bank so Smith could pay employees’ wages and other company bills. Smith decided to cheat his employers out of $9,500 by issuing a check payable to Timkin Bearings, one of the suppliers of bearings. Smith does not intend for Timkin to receive any of the money, nor is Timkin entitled to the payment. Smith endorses the check in Timkin’s name and deposits the check in an account that he opened in Sunny Bank in the name “Timkin Bearing Co. Sunny Bank accepts the check and collects payment from the drawee bank, First Bank. First Bank charges Porter Cable’s account $9,500. Smith transfers $9,500 out of the Timkin account and closes it. Porter Cable discovers the fraud and demands that their account be re-credited. Evaluate the arguments for Porter Cable and the banks. Determine which party should win and support your answer. Provide arguments for each party. Determine which party will win. Provide support for the arguments and the final answer with cases or scholarly articles from the South University Online Library. Scenario 2 – Negotiable Instruments Ginny DeWitt borrowed $30,000 from SunTrust Bank to pay for her first year of college and signed a promissory note that required payments to start six months after graduation or the student fails to enroll in at least one-half of the full time load. Ginny dropped out of college to pursue her passion of opening a gift shop. When Ginny failed to pay the debt, SunTrust transferred the note to First Bank in New York. New York Bank obtained a court order allowing it to garnish Ginny’s wages and her federal income tax refund. Ginny filed a lawsuit seeing to avoid the payment, claiming the debt was not valid because she did not sign any documentation promising to pay First Bank. She also argued that the note lacked consideration. Explain the holder or holder in due course status of SunTrust when the bank took the note from Ginny and then First Bank when it took the note from SunTrust. Address GInny’s arguments concerning the validity of the debt. Determine the outcome of the case and provide support for your answer. Scenario 3 – Holder in Due Course John Haley hired Mary Black as a bookkeeper at Florida Dental Center, Inc. Haley fired Black when he learned that she embezzled more than $200,000 and did not pay over $150,000 in state and federal taxes owed by the business. Haley said that if Black did not repay the embezzled funds, he would notify law enforcement. Black started working as a bookkeeper for Senior Daycare, a business owned by her father. Without proper authorization, Black wrote a check to Florida Dental for $175,000 out of Senior Daycare’s account and deposited the check directly into Florida Dental’s checking account. Black told Haley that the funds were a loan from her family so she could repay Florida Dental. Haley used the funds to pay the back taxes owed. Two years later, Black’s father discovered her theft and sued both Haley and Florida Dental for conversion because Black did not have authority to take the funds. Evaluate Florida Dental’s status as a holder in due course (HDC) of the funds Mary repaid. Since Haley knew that Black previously embezzled funds from Florida Dental when she was an employee, should Haley have been suspicious about the source of the funds that Black used to repay the debt? Could this knowledge impact the court’s decision? Provide support for your answers. Discussion Question Part II Using the business you created in Week 1, select three topics from the list below and explain how your business will handle issues related to the topics.Justify your answers with relevant laws, cases, or examples. Acceptance of checks Prevention of forgery (internal employees) Dishonored (returned checks) Acceptance of payment by electronic means, such as PayPal Alternative payments such as Bitcoin, BPAY Gift cards Issuing credit to customers

This is your second interview with a prestigious brokerage firm for a job as an equity analyst. You survived the morning interviews with the department manager and the vice president of equity. Everything has gone so well that they want to test your ability as an analyst. You are seated in a room with a computer and a list with the names of two companies – Ford (stock symbol F) and Microsoft (stock symbol MSFT) and are asked to do the following analysis including computing stock ratios for F and MSFT, comparing and contrasting those ratios, and analyzing the performance of the stocks versus the industry averages. Complete the following tasks and write a four- to five-page report on your findings, including the analysis in Questions 2 and 3 below. 1. Compute ratios by following the below directions: Navigate to Morningstar ( http://www.morningstar.com/ ). In the Quote box at the top of the page, enter each stock symbol, choose your companies, and click on the Financials tab. You will see underneath the Financials tab the three financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow). An Export button is to the far right. Download the income statement and balance sheet financial statements for each company. Next, you will need historical data for each stock. Navigate to Yahoo! Finance ( https://finance.yahoo.com/ ), enter each stock symbol, click on Historical Data, and select ending date of the most recent full reported year (for example, if the income statement ending is December 2016, select December 30 to 31, 2016). Note the company’s stock closing price for the last day of the financial statement reporting period you will use for this assignment. To determine each organization’s market capitalization at the closing date of the most recent annual statements you downloaded from Morningstar, multiply the number of shares outstanding by the stock price you obtained from Yahoo! Finance. Use the number of shares outstanding by using Basic under Weighted Average Shares Outstanding on the income statement you downloaded from Morningstar (remember, the share value will be in millions of shares, so make the adjustment by adding 0s). Compute the following ratios for F and MSFT (refer back to Week 1) for the most recent year of financial statements downloaded from Morningstar: Price-earnings ratio (for EPS, use diluted EPS total) Market-to-book ratio (aka price-to-book ratio) Operating margin Net profit margin Return on equity Current ratio Quick ratio Debt-to-equity (for debt, use long-term debt) Obtain industry averages for each company by going to Reuters ( http://www.reuters.com/finance/markets ). Click the magnifying glass search icon, enter each company’s name, click on Companies, select each company, and then the Financials tab. Scroll down under Valuation Ratios and each ratio you calculated to the industry (ignore the current company ratios as these are not the same as you calculated). 2. Analyze the performance of each firm versus the industry, and comment on what you find in terms of strengths and weaknesses. 3. Compare and contrast the ratios for F and MSFT. a. What might explain the differences between them? b. Would you recommend investors buy, hold, or sell F and MSFT, based on your analysis? The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: Formulate approaches to current asset management, capital budgeting, financial structure, dividend policy, long-term financing, and mergers. Analyze approaches to current asset management, capital budgeting, financial structure, dividend policy, long-term financing, and mergers. Write clearly and concisely about financial management using proper writing mechanics.

You are a CFO of an international company; it has 4 offices (around the world) and a headquarters- War broke out in the area of the office farthest from headquarters. What would be the activities or actions you would take and what taskings would you give the COO and CFO? (Minimum of 250 words, APA format, 3 academic references)

1. Choose two firms that compete within the same industry (e.g., J.C. Penney and Sears, Johnson & Johnson and Merck, Ford and GM). 2. Go to each firm’s website, and then access and download their annual reports (financial statements). 3. Using the accounting data from the firms’ financial statements and the ratios studied in Chapter 9 of the textbook, calculate all ratios for each firm (liquidity ratios, activity ratios, profitability ratios, leverage ratios, and coverage ratios). 4. Analyze and compare your calculations for the two firms. 5. In Discussion Forum 1, report to the class on your figures and analysis by the date indicated in the Course Calendar. Please title your thread “Ratio Analysis/[Your Name].” Be sure to include the web addresses (URLs) of the firms whose websites you visited.

Please answer the following questions in detail, provide examples whenever applicable, provide in-text citations. Please describe the real option inherent in each of the following cases and provide some real-life hypothetical cases. Also, explain in each case if the option seller is involved and who that seller might be. a. Moda di Milano postpones a major investment. The expansion has positive NPV on a discounted cash-flow basis, but top management wants to get a better fix on product demand before proceeding. b. Western Telecom commits to production of digital switching equipment specially designed for the European market. The project has a negative NPV, but it is justified on strategic grounds by the need for a strong market position in the rapidly growing, and potentially very profitable, market. c. Western Telecom vetoes a fully integrated, automated production line for the new digital switches. It relies on standard, less-expensive equipment. The automated production line is more efficient overall, according to a discounted cash-flow calculation. d. Mount Fuji Airways buys a jumbo jet with special equipment that allows the plane to be switched quickly from freight to passenger use or vice versa. 2. State if each of the following statements is true or false. Justify your answer. Decision trees can help identify and describe real options. The option to expand increases PV. High abandonment value decreases PV. If a project has a positive NPV, the firm should always invest immediately. 3. State if each of the following statements are true or false. Justify your answer. A firm that earns the opportunity cost of capital is earning economic rents. A firm that invests in positive NPV ventures expects to earn economic rents. Financial managers should try to identify areas where their firms can earn economic rents, because they think that positive NPV projects are likely to be found in projects that earn economic rent. Economic rent is the equivalent annual cost of operating capital equipment. 1-2 pages with 2 references

There are two parts to the assignment. The first part is calculating the ratios. Refer to Chapter 4: Financial Statement Analysis and Investopedia. The second part is the Financial Performance Summary. The Summary should answer the following key questions: Is the organization profitable? Why or why not? How effective is the organization in collecting its receivables? Is the organization in a good position to pay its bills? How efficiently is the organization using its assets? Are the organization’s plant and equipment in need of replacement? Is the organization in a good position to take on additional debt? Why or why not?