Capella University PacificCoast Technology Company Finance Case Study
Capella University PacificCoast Technology Company Finance Case Study
Question Description
Create a 6-8 page report that analyzes financial ratios for a selected company, uses the data to tell the financial story of that company, and concludes with a recommendation on whether the company would be a viable partner based on its financial condition.
INTRODUCTION
It is essential for financial advisors and upper management to know the financial condition of a company for a variety of reasons, including to improve its condition, to make decisions to increase shareholder value, and to know the true value of the entity. Such an analysis is important for any business, small, medium, or large.
This portfolio work project gives you a chance to apply the skills expected of an MBA graduate; from the financial management perspective, you should be able to:
Tell the financial story based on financial statements.
Conduct a financial analysis and identify focus areas for enhancing shareholder value.
Interpret ratio computations that are meaningful and inform business decisions and strategies.
SCENARIO
Maria Gomez is founder and president of PacificCoast Technology, a small technology company. She is considering being bought out by a larger publicly traded company so she can be rewarded financially for all of her entrepreneurial efforts. She calls you into her office and says:
Thank you for meeting with me today. I’d like to talk to you about the future of the PacificCoast Technology. I’ve been running this company for a long time now, and I think it’s time for me to consider the next five to ten years. I want to find a buyer for this company who can take it to its full potential but with me still leading it. I still want to be a part of the journey, to see this company’s growth, which means this potential buyer needs to be a high quality company with solid financial health. That’s the only way we’ll be sure there’s going to be necessary funds and stability for the firm to grow.
You are ready to take on this project to assist Maria with her vision to find a buyer to take the company into the next phase. At your desk, you review these additional meeting notes:
The acquiring company does not need to be in the same industry, as Maria values financial strength over any synergistic benefits.
Maria wants you to select a company and then examine its financial condition by analyzing its financial statements and using financial ratio analysis. She indicated that using both trend analysis—going back at least three years—and industry average analysis would be helpful information for her.
From this analysis, Maria wants you to tell the financial story of the potential buyer/company by listing its financial strengths and weaknesses.
She expects you to provide a list of actionable decisions so she can understand if the company would be a potentially viable corporate partner.
YOUR ROLE
You are one of Maria’s high-performing managers at PacificCoast Technology, and she trusts your work and leadership.
REQUIREMENTS
After a few days of thinking about Maria’s project request, you call a meeting with her in which you lay out the requirements below. You tell her that by meeting these requirements, you believe she will have the information she needs. Maria approves your plan and asks that you get started right away.
Here is what your report should provide for Maria on the selected company:
Provide a brief background and summary of the potential corporate partner in terms of its history, product lines, and geographic reach. (Remember that Maria is looking for a partner that is a publicly traded firm.)
Analyze the financial statements of the firm, which can be typically be found in the annual report in the investors’ area of the corporate website, including the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows:
Do a comprehensive financial ratio analysis, including multiple financial ratios in each of the following categories—short-term solvency or liquidity, long-term solvency, asset management or turnover, profitability, and market value ratios.
Use the following tools to analyze these ratios: trend analysis (going back at least three years) and industry average ratio analysis. If industry average ratios are not available for the company, use an average of two of its nearest competitors.
Evaluate the financial statements and ratios of the firm to find its true condition and valuation.
From the ratio analysis, identify and strengths and weaknesses of the company.
Make conclusions on the current status of the firm based on its history and comparison to its competitors.
Make actionable items and conclusions, based on the data analysis, about the status of the company.
Based on the analysis of the firm, identify any general actions that need to be made to improve the financial condition, and indicate the ease or difficulty of the firm doing so.
Tell the current financial story of the firm and indicate the overall health of the firm as it relates to current valuation and the future prospects of the company.
Provide a clear picture of the financial condition and valuation of the company to shareholders, debtholders, customers, and employees.
Present information graphically and in narrative form, conveying a compelling snapshot of the company.
Recommend whether the company would be a good match to enter into a buyout tender offer/agreement.
Remember that it is not enough to just simply summarize numbers or data for your audience. Put yourself in their shoes and make the connections for them, tell them why it is important, and tap into their concerns and motivations.
While you are free to use your creativity in formatting your submission, keep in mind that this is a document that will be for the eyes of the owner of the firm, so make sure it can be easily and quickly examined by a busy upper-management professional, with clear writing and understandable graphics and charts.
DELIVERABLE FORMAT
Create a report that tells the financial condition of a company. Your report should provide information on the following:
Analysis of the financial statements.
Evaluation of the true condition and valuation of the company.
Recommendation of actionable items for the company based on the financial analysis.
Report requirements:
Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message and quality.
Use at least three scholarly resources.
Your report should be between 6 and 8 pages.
Use 12 point, Times New Roman.
If you are experienced with preparing professional reports, you may use a format of your choice. However, if you are new to this type of writing and document style, you may wish to use these sections as a way to organize your report:
Title Page.
Executive Summary.
Company Background.
Financial Analysis.
Financial Ratio Analysis.
Trend Analysis.
Industry Average Analysis.
Conclusion.
Recommendations.
Appendix (if you have additional data, reports, charts, et cetera, to support your analysis).
Related company standards:
Remember that you are preparing a professional document meant for executive leadership with limited time. Your report should follow the corresponding MBA Academic and Professional Document Guidelines (available in the MBA Program Resources), including single-spaced paragraphs.
Use APA-formatted references.
EVALUATION
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies through corresponding scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Apply the theories, models, and practices of finance to the financial management of an organization.
Analyze financial ratio analysis, trend analysis, and industry average analysis.
Competency 3: Apply financial analyses to business planning and decision making.
Evaluate the financial statements of the firm to find its true condition and valuation.
Competency 4: Use data to support evidence-based financial decisions.
Develop actionable items and conclusions, based on the analysis, about the status of the company.
Competency 5: Communicate financial information with multiple stakeholders
Tell the current financial story as to the overall health of the firm as it relates to current valuation and the future prospects of the company.
Faculty will use the scoring guide to review your deliverable from the perspective of Maria Gomez.
ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL NURSING ESSAY ASSIGNMENT ON: Capella University PacificCoast Technology Company Finance Case Study
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.