BU113: Foundations of Business Administration

Homework Assignment to prepare for the Finance Application Assignment

You may work with a partner to prepare the research and financial analysis, but you must write the memo individually.

1. Select two publicly traded U.S. companies in similar businesses, i.e. in the same industry.  Consult the major industries on Valueline (http://www.valueline.com/secure/vlispdf/stk1700/industry.aspx or click on "Lookup Industry" in the left navigation bar).
   NOTE: The companies must meet the following requirements:

   • No financial institutions or automobile companies

   • Not combined on the "Company Pairs not Allowed" list

   • Must have positive net income for latest year

   You may identify 2 companies from this list and get information by clicking on their names. 
   An alternate source for a list of major industries is Yahoo's Industry Index at http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/ind_index.html.

2. Find your two comparable companies on Valueline (http://www.valueline.com/secure/vlispdf/stk1700/lookup.aspx or click "Lookup Company" in the left navigation bar).  Click the radio button for Company and type in the name of your company.  Confirm that the companies are listed on a U.S. stock exchange (NYSE--New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ) and note the "Ticker Symbol"--you will need this later.
3. Download or copy the pages from Value Line for both companies..
4. For each company, get the Balance Sheet and Income Statement for the latest year.  These can be found under Financials on the company's site in Yahoo!Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/) or in the company's Annual Report (also called 10-K) on either the company's Web site or under the SEC filings on the Yahoo!Finance site, MSN-Money (http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/research/profile.asp), or another source.  Make sure you get the annual (not quarterly) financial statements.

This page was last updated: March 24, 2008