Course Overview

Course Introduction: The course will cover financial statements mainly from an investor's perspective. It is expected that students can learn the information in financial statements and technical tools for analyzing and valuing companies and communication of your analysis. This course is designed to take the students beyond the routine filling of boxes with standard financial ratios. The primary focus of the course is not on the accounting rules, but the use of accounting information. We will use firms' publicly available financial statements to assess current performance, forecast future performance and estimate fundamentals of the firm.

Learning Achievement

Course Objective: The primary learning objective/outcome of this course is to provide students with an in-depth exposure to various financial statements used in business activities -- specifically to evaluate how statements and their construction vary from firm to firm within various legal and institutional requirements. Additionally, a perspective of the following will be explored: Be able to assess the business environment of the firm and its industry Be able to assess the financial condition of a firm. Be able to make a forecast of future financial statements. Be able to apply income-based and cash flow-based valuation models Be able to read analyst report and how companies communicate with their investors (e.g., conference call). Be able to perform a complete analysis of a company and present clearly a business and financial summary to a group. Be able to prepare the analyst report.

Competence

Course prerequisites

Class participation and discussion We expect active class participation. Please email the lecturer in advance if you will miss a class session. Class participation credit is awarded for the quality and frequency of your contribution to the class discussion. All students are expected to obey the following classroom rules: 1. Respect others and their property. 2. Come prepared to class. 3. Do not use "Laptop" and "Cell phone" in class. Problem set Assignments You are required to turn in the assignment to TA in the beginning of each class. You can discuss the homework assignments with your classmates, but you are expected to solve the problems and write-up the solutions on an individual basis. These problem sets will be graded on satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Group Case Assignments Students in the class will form groups and each group will need to prepare the presentation for the case. Final Exam Final exam will consist of numerical problems. The exam will be closed book. Final Group Project Each group needs to finish an analysis report for one company, including business strategy, ratio analysis, forecasting, and valuation analysis.

Grading Philosophy

Course schedule

Course type

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Wen-Hsin Hsu

Other information

*Registration eligibility: juniors and above.
*Registration eligibility: students of College of Management. (College of Management Global Mba

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