Discuss how the financial statements are used in your current role or a position you would like to hold. How might these aid you in managerial decision making?

Purpose
of Assignment 
This activity helps
students recognize the significant role accounting plays in providing financial
information to management for decision making through the evaluation of
financial statements. This experiential assignment requires students to use
ratios to evaluate and analyze a company’s liquidity, solvency, and
profitability. 
Assignment
Steps 
Resources:
Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles (GAAP), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
University Library, Library resources: Company Directories and Financials 
Tutorial help on Excel®
and Word functions can be found on the Microsoft® Office website.
There are also additional tutorials via the web offering support for Office
products. 
Select a publicly traded, U.S.
corporation with which you are familiar or one where you currently work or have
worked in the past.
Research the company on the
Internet and download the Income Statement, Statement of Shareholders’ Equity,
Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows.
Develop a minimum 700-word
examination of the financial statements and include the following:

Determine the net income for
the current fiscal year (FY). Is this income up or down from the prior
year? 
Explain the relevance of
changes in net income to investors.
Determine the ending balance in
shareholders’ equity. Why would organizations such as labor unions be
interested in this?
Determine the total value of
assets. 
Discuss the relevance of the
total value of assets to potential creditors and why this is important.
Compute the return on assets.
Discuss the relative profitability of the company based on your results.
Compute the working capital and
current ratio. Evaluate the relative liquidity of the company based on
your results.
Compute the debt to assets
ratio and the free cash flow for your company. Analyze the results and
comment on the relative solvency of the company.
Discuss how the financial
statements are used in your current role or a position you would like to
hold. How might these aid you in managerial decision making?

Show
your work in Microsoft®
Word or Excel®. 
Complete
calculations/computations
using Microsoft® Word or Excel®.   
Include the four financial
statements along with your assignment.