Target Corp. (TGT) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Inc. are business rivals in the retailer industry. In applying an internship at Target

FIN 3100 Principles of Finance

Case Study #1

WRITE THIS ESSAY FOR ME

Tell us about your assignment and we will find the best writer for your paper.

Get Help Now!

Financial Ratio Analysis

Target Corp. (TGT) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Inc. are business rivals in the retailer industry. In applying an internship at Target, you are asked to get the financial statements of 2016 (Income statement, Balance sheet statement, and Cash flow statement) for both companies and perform a financial analysis for Target. Conduct your investigation by comparing financial performances of two companies and address issues in the following areas:

Whether Target has adequate liquidity compared to Walmart?

Does Target use its assets efficiently?

The profitability of Target compared to Walmart.

Does the company have the right amount of debt?

Is Target managing the return to shareholders properly?

Use financial ratio analysis and the DuPont identity to investigate and answer questions above.

Identify the strengths and weaknesses of both companies. In what areas does Target outperform or underperform compared to Walmart? In what areas are they the same? Explain.

Make appropriate recommendations to Target with respect to any financial matters needing attention.

Present the results of your analysis in a formal report (in WORD or in PDF) to be submitted to Target and share with the executive committee and major shareholders if needed.

Note: Some suggestions for the report:

Organize your report into logical sections that make it easy to read and understand.

Cover page and/or Title: who are you? What is your analysis report about? To whom are you writing this report?

Introduction: Begin with an introduction describing the two companies and the analysis that you performed.

Analysis Sections: Include a section for each area of analysis. Discuss the analysis you performed and the highlights of the results. You don’t have to include everything, but include those items that are significant and critical.

Summary Section: Include a section that identifies and summarizes the highlights of the analysis. This section is where you include the key strengths and weaknesses.

Recommendations Section: If you have any specific recommendations for Target, include them in this section. If there are no recommendations, then do not include this section.

Conclusion Section: This section is a short summary of the entire report: the analysis performed; the strengths & weaknesses & the recommendations.

Attach the appropriate financial schedules to the report as attached schedules in the end (financial statements and the financial ratio analysis you performed). Make sure they are formatted so they are easy to read and understand.

One of the keys to successful writing in business is to write clearly, keeping the reports short and to the point. Typically a boss will want all of the important information but won’t want to read very many pages. They will want the report organized in titled sections so they can flip through and find what they want quickly. Do that as best as you can with this report. Good luck!