This course is designed to reinforce the topics in this course. Each student will choose one publicly traded company from the Fortune 500 list. The student may select his or her employer as one of the firms if it is publicly traded. To make your project interesting, you are urged to pick a company that has been in the news lately. The following is a list of industries you may choose from, and a sample of companies within each industry.
| INDUSTRY | SAMPLE COMPANIES |
| Apparel and Shoes | Nike, Reebok, Timberland |
| Appliances | Black & Decker, Viking, GE, Kitchen Aid |
| Computer–Major System | IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard |
| Electrical Utilities—Northeast | PECO, Commonwealth Energy |
| Airlines | USAir, Southwest |
| Food Distributors—Supermarkets | American Stores, Food Lion, Giant Food |
| Food, Drink & Tobacco—Processors | Campbell Soup, General Mills, Kellogg |
| Restaurant Chains | McDonalds, Shoney’s, Wendy’s |
| Chemicals | Dow Chemical, DuPont, Monsanto, Hercules |
| Technology | Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Apple |
| Pharmaceuticals | Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson |
| Retailing—Department Stores | Sears, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus |
| Telecommunications | Verizon, AT&T, Comcast |
In completing the assignments, each student is required to obtain the most recent annual report of your company or the past three years, including its financial statements and the notes to the financial statements. You will examine the annual report to determine the major financing, investing, and operating activities.
Report – Retirement Recommendation
You are to write a formal business letter to me in week seven about the company that you used for your stock market report. The citation page is not included in the three page requirements for the letter.
Assume I am going to retire in five (5) years. You are to make a recommendation to me in the letter on whether I should purchase 100 shares of the stock for inclusion in my retirement portfolio. The goal of my portfolio is to provide income for me.
Support your recommendation about the company using at least five (5) different financial ratios from table 3.5 on page 65. Make sure you explain each ratio. You may select any five (5) ratios of your choice.
The text of the three page business letter must be double-spaced using a 12-point Times New Roman font. On a separate page cite any sources using the APA format.
