FNCE3000 Corporate Finance

3.   Analyst Report (40%)

Objective: To prepare an analyst report on a publicly listed, dividend paying company.

Formation of a group is preferred but optional. Students may create groups with a maximum of 2 (two) members to complete the assignment. To do so, students must complete and sign the group sign-up form (available under the assessments tab in Bb) and submit it to teaching staff by Sunday, 16 March, 11:59 pm (AWST) (week 3).

The report submission must be made via Turnitin, and both group members must sign the sign- up sheet. Only one submission per group is required; submitting two separate entries is evidence of a lack of communication between group members and may incur a penalty. If you have chosen to complete the assignment individually, you must still submit the group form with only your details and signature. Failure to submit the group form by the deadline will result in a penalty of up to 10% of the overall assignment marks, at the UC's discretion.

It is your responsibility to form a group and allocate tasks. Exchange phone numbers and relevant contact details with your group member. Moreover, you are to discuss and collaborate with your group member via a cloud platform, e.g., Google Docs. The assignment will be assessed according to the rubrics and criteria provided at the end of this document.

The presentation of the assignment should be in 1.5 lines spacing and 12pt font. It should not exceed 4,000 words. A variation of +/-  10% of this limit is acceptable, but you must inform your tutor before submission. The word count excludes tables, diagrams, charts, and APA references.

4.   Group Assignment details

You are to select a publicly listed dividend paying company from the country of your study location (e.g. Australia for the Bentley campus) and conduct a detailed analysis on it.

Please go through the 5 checklist at the next page before you commence your assignment. Selection of a company that do not meet the criteria will incur a 30% penalty.

Australia based students must NOT select Domino’s Pizza (DMP), BHP Group Ltd (BHP), Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG), Wesfarmers (WES), Telstra (TLS), JBHiFi (JBH), Harvey Norman (HVN), Northern Star Resources (NST), Woolworths (WOW), banks, insurance companies,  REITs  and  investment  companies.  If  you  are  unsure,  please  check  with  your tutor/lecturer during tutorial / lecture / consultation hours.

The purpose of this assignment is to use your acquired knowledge from this unit to investigate the financial strength of a public listed company. Your research should cover the following 4 sections:

• Shareholder analysis (15%) – Who are the owners of the company and the implication to the choice of methods used to calculate the cost of return.

• Risk-return analysis (15%) –  Analyse  the  return  received  over  the  market  for  the apparent risks identified in the company.

• Cost of capital (40%) – Calculate the cost of capital using various methods and analyse your findings.

• Financial statement analysis (30%) – Determine the future of the company by analysing the performance of the company.

In each of these sections, you are to report your findings using the format provided below. If the information is not from the company’s annual report, you will have to provide details on:

 where you sourced the information; and

 comment on how you have verified its reliability.

If the information is from the annual report, you do not need to reference, but you must include the page number of the annual report from which the information has been taken, for example: (pg XX).

The assignment must be written completely by you and your group members. You are not to purchase or reproduce commercial stock reports.

5.   Refinitiv Workspace

All students will receive their own login details for Refinitiv Workspace by week 3. This web-based database platform is extensively used in the industry and will add value if you could develop some expertise in using it. The UC will run a workshop during the lecture in week 4.

6.   Group Assignment Requirement

Before you start:

Do not choose the company unless it satisfies the following, otherwise you will get a 30% penalty.

7.   Important Referencing Information:

•   Use referencing sparingly. More reference means less critical assessment. You are not awarded marks for putting forth opinions of others.

•   APA referencing is required.

•   Referencing must be consistent (5% penalty).

•   Do not reference material from textbooks and lecture slides.

•   Do not include definitions or theory.

•   If the information is from the annual report, do not reference; instead include the page number of the annual report from which the information has been taken from.

•   Do not quote directly from the annual report, journal articles, textbook, or lecture slides, or provide formulas and definitions for equations. Instead, demonstrate your process and explain your understanding in your own words.

•   Appendices without intext page number reference will not be looked at. Do not reference from stockbroking or investment companies/website/articles; including but not limited to Simply   Wall   Street,   Intelligent   investor,   Investsmart,   Motley   Fool,   investing.com, Investopedia, etc.