Financial Statement Analysis

Catalog description

This course is about the analysis of financial information - particularly firms’ financial statements - for making decisions to invest in businesses. The primary focus is on equity valuation, with some attention given to credit analysis and the valuation of debt. The methods of fundamental analysis will be examined in detail and applied in cases and projects involving publicly traded companies. Topics include models of shareholder value, a comparison of accrual accounting and discounted cash flow approaches to valuation, the analysis of profitability, growth and valuation generation in a firm, diagnosing accounting quality, forecasting earnings and cash flows, pro-forma analysis for strategy and planning, and the determination of price/earnings (P/E) and market-to-book (P/B) ratios.