Your first task of this week is to select and reserve the company you wish to research.

Your first task of this week is to select and reserve the
company you wish to research. Your second task is to prepare a
report with the information you collect about the company. Do not
select a bank, financial services, or insurance company as the
ratios used to evaluate financial institutions are beyond the scope
of this course and are not addressed in the text.

Your second task is to prepare a report with the required
information provided below

When you have finished reserving your company, find the
company’s most recent 10-K report. There are two ways to do
this:

Option 1: My preference is to use the 10-K
report posted on the company’s website because I often stumble
across other helpful information while there. From the company’s
home page, look for a link for Investors, then select SEC
filings, and limit the search of SEC documents to
“annual.” Select the most recent 10-K
filing. Take care not to select the 10-Q as it is a
quarterly report.

Option 2: Go to the Securities and Exchange
Commission’s website. Use the Filings tab to find the report. If
you need assistance, there is a short video about how to use the
site.

Please remember that your chosen company must be a
publicly-traded company (excluding financial
companies).

A public, publicly-traded,
publicly held company, or
public corporation is a corporation whose
ownership is dispersed among the general public in
many shares of stock which are freely traded on a
stock exchange or in over the counter markets.

You should select a well know company (perhaps from the Fortune
Five Hundred) that has been in business for more than 10
years so that the required financial data will be readily
available.

Template Report:

Name of Company and Ticker Symbol: Company
name, ticker symbol

10-K Report: Paste the direct URL to the
company’s most recent 10-K Report

Company Website: Paste the URL to the company’s
website

Company Business Model: Review Item 1 of the
10-K report to find the following information:

Short Description of Business: What does the company do? What
are its key sources of revenue

Product Mix: Identify the company’s product mix or key segments.
Briefly describe each product line/segment. Include brand names if
possible

Stock Price Data: use the Yahoo! Finance
website to find the information required

5-Year Stock Price Graph: Provide a screenshot of the data
(Learn how to do this on a MAC or PC)
Although the screen shot tool does not work with the Yahoo
interactive graph, the snipping tool does. Please view this video
for directions on how to snip the graph so that you can paste it
into your post for Discussion 1. (5 points)

Stock Price Data: Use the interactive chart on the Yahoo!
Finance page, and use your cursor to find the highest price point
and lowest price point in the last 52 weeks. The date the price was
hit will be at the bottom of the graph on the horizontal axis. (5
points)

Evaluation: Does the stock price graph provide
evidence of management’s ability to maximize shareholder wealth?
What is your impression of the company thus far? (5 points)