Topic:Assessing the performance of a company
Subject:Finance
volume; 4 pages
Type: course work
Format: Harvard
Description
The assignment aims at examining your ability to assess the performance of a company using Ratio Analysis. It also tests your ability to analyse financial data and submit your findings to the users of financial statements.
Introduction
The topic for this assignment is-: Assessing the performance of a company. The assignment aims at examining your ability to assess the performance of a company using Ratio Analysis. It also tests your ability to analyse financial data and submit your findings to the users of financial statements.
You will NOT PASS if you do not include:
1. A financial analysis
2. At least 8 comparative ratios.
3. Discussion of limitations of ratio analysis
4. A copy of the financial statement
5. A FRONT COVER and the marking guide.
Details of the task
You are a firm of financial analysts and consultants. You have been ap-proached by some stakeholders of financial information (customers, investors, Banks and suppliers etc.) who wish to invest £1million in a company selected from one of the following business sectors.
Alcoholic Beverages Electronics
Chemicals Food Manufacturers
Retailers, Other Travel & Leisure
NOTE: Your selected company should be listed on the London Stock Ex-change.
Requirements:
You should obtain a copy of the Annual Report of your selected company and other financial information to prepare a report about the company. Your review and report should cover THREE FINANCIAL YEARS including; 2016, 2015, and 2014 ONLY.
Any work covering financial years prior to 2014 will be RETURNED UN-MARKED. The affected students will fail the module.
Report
You should write a report of 2,000 words (excluding references) that covers the following:
(i) Provide a brief synopsis about the company performance and back-ground. 250 words
(i) Define and calculate appropriate financial ratios for both 2016, 2015 and 2014 (using year-end figures for balance sheet terms):
PROFITABILITY RATIOS
1. Return on capital employed
2. Operating profit margin
3. Gross profit margin
LIQUIDITY RATIOS
4. Current ratio
5. Acid test ratio
EFFICIENCY RATIOS
6. Settlement period for trade payables
7. Settlement period for trade receivables
1. Stock turnover
MARKET RATIOS
2. Earnings Per Share
3. Price/Earning ratio
(iii) You should discuss the performance of your selected company to help management improve on operations and also consider the other key stake-holders in your case based the ratios calculated in (i) above.
2000 words
(v) Briefly discuss the auditors’ opinion on the financial statements used for your calculations.
250 words
Total: 2,500 words
The assignment instructions below provide more details of what your submis-sion should include.
Structure
You have been asked to produce a report. The report should contain the fol-lowing:
• Title Page, including the given title in full.
• Abstract (No more than 150 words)
• Contents Page
• Introduction.
• Main body, which should also be organised under appropriate head-ings.
• Recommendations
• Conclusion.
• Appendices, which should be numbered.
• Make sure you refer your reader to them as required.
• Word count 2,000 words; excluding appendices and reference list.
Presentation
Your work should be word processed in accordance with the following:
• Font style, Arial, font size 12
• 1.5 line spacing
• The page orientation should be ‘portrait’
• Margins on both sides of the page should be no less than 2.5 cm
• Pages should be numbered
• Your name should not appear on the script.
• Your student number should be included on every page.
Skills Advice
Refer to your material provided in your skills modules to make sure that you have conformed to academic conventions. Pay particular attention to:
• Your introduction,
• Your conclusion,
• The use of headings and/or signpost words
• Paragraph structure
Do refer to Info skills at http://writeitright.uelconnect.org.uk/home/ and http://infoskills.uelconnect.org.uk/
Referencing
The university expects students to use Harvard referencing as specified in the book Cite them Right.
• Refer to http://www.uel.ac.uk/lls/support/harvard.htm for further advice and a link to an online version of Cite them Right
• You should be careful to include citations within your work as well as a reference list at the end. Unreferenced work will fail.
Word Count
Your word count should not include your abstract, contents, reference list or appendices. You should provide your word count at the end of your report.
Exceeding the word count by more than 10% will result in a penalty of 10% of your marks for your work.
If your work is significantly shorter, then you will probably have failed to provide the level of detail required.
Submission to Turnitin of Work Submitted for Assessment
Our policy on the use of Turnitin recognises the educational desirability that all of our students should enjoy the opportunity to self-submit their work to Turnitin (before submitting for assessment). We also recognise that Turnitin Originality Reports will sometimes assist in the identification of plagiarised work submitted for assessment.
Work that is submitted to Turnitin generates a Turnitin originality report, showing which parts of it have been reproduced from which sources. The system compares submissions to material that is to be found: on the world-wide web; in its database of previous submissions; and in its growing number of databases of published articles. You should not assume that a Turnitin originality report with a low similarity index is evidence that the piece of work concerned is free from plagiarism.
Our policy provides that a Module Leader may decide, in accordance with the policy of RDBS, that all student submissions for a particular component of assessment should be submitted to Turnitin, provided that the relevant Module Guide includes a notice to that effect.
Notice is hereby given that all submissions of reports for this Module must be submitted to Turnitin. Detailed guidance on how to submit your work to Turnitin will be made available on this Module’s
If you fail to submit your report to Turnitin, in accordance with the guid-ance on the Moodle site, you will be awarded a mark of 0 for the compo-nent.
If you have any questions about Turnitin, you should go to “Frequently Asked Questions” at http://www.nlearning.co.uk/faqsearch.php?sol=turnitin. If you have any further questions, please email the Head of Student Compliance and Responsibilities, Toby Grainger (t.j.grainger@uel.ac.uk).
NB
Please read the material in the submission folder and make sure that you attach the feedback sheet as requested and save the document using the format for the name of the document as specified.
Extenuating Circumstances
Extenuating Circumstances are circumstances which:
• impair your examination performance in assessment or reas-sessment, or
• prevent you from attending for assessment or reassessment, or
• prevent you from submitting assessed or reassessed work by the scheduled date
