Standard Course Outline

Financial Statement Analysis

I. General Information
Course Number GBA 644
Title Financial Statement Analysis
Units 4.0
Prerequisites FIN-615; ACCT-615; MBA standing.
Course Coordinator Praveen Sinha
SCO Prepared by Pia Gupta, Praveen Sinha
Date prepared/revised June/July 2010

II. Catalog Description

This course focuses on the content and analysis of publicly available financial statement
data. Students will learn analytical tools to assess a firm's profitability and risk and to
value the firm’s common stock using valuation models.

III. Curriculum Justifications

Corporate management involves informed decision making in three key areas:
investment, financing and operations. Students should be able to evaluate management
success in these areas by using a set of crucial financial statement analysis techniques that
will eventually culminate into business valuation. This course provides MBA students
with the knowledge and skills necessary to read and interpret accounting information and
to use that knowledge in estimating a company’s financial performance and share
valuation. Additionally, students should be able to compare financials of companies
within the same industry, understand cash flows, evaluate profitability, and analyze risk
levels.

IV. Curriculum and Course Goals and Objectives

The MBA curriculum is designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop
knowledge and skills in local and global business practices. The program of study is
intended to engage learners in integrative learning experiences across professional personal,
content, and skill areas. Courses within the MBA curriculum should include at least one and
up to two of the following:

• Critical Thinking Skills- students will be able to demonstrate conceptual learning, critical
thinking, and problem solving skills.
• Interpersonal, Leadership, and Team Skills - students will be able to demonstrate
interpersonal communication and leadership skills to work in a dynamic and diverse world,
both independently and in a team environment.
• Social Responsibility Skills - students will be able to demonstrate awareness and
knowledge of social responsibility, ethical leadership, and corporate citizenship in the
domestic and global environment.
• Business functions Skills - students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of today’s
dynamic business environment through an understanding of all business functions, practices,

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and related theories and be able to integrate this functional knowledge in order to address
business problems.
• Quantitative & Technical Skills - students will possess quantitative and technical skills
enabling them to analyze, interpret, and communicate business data effectively and to
improve business performance.
• Knowledge of the Domestic & Global Environment – students will be able to
demonstrate knowledge of today’s dynamic business environment (e.g. legal, regulatory,
political, cultural, and economic) especially the links between our region and the global
business world.

Course Goal

The goal of this course is to develop integrative knowledge and skills in addressing the
complexity of understanding and applying accounting techniques in making important financial
decisions required to meet the goal of sustainable development.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

1. Understand the financial reporting environment. How the form and content of
financial reports is driven by the demand and supply of information arising from
the firm’s nexus of contracts.
2. Define the areas in which management makes decisions, and how these decisions
get reflected in the primary financial statements.
3. How to understand and isolate elements of Income Statement, Statement of Cash
Flows, and the Balance Sheet that are meaningful to decision makers.
4. Describe the use of financial ratios in evaluating profitability and long and short-
term risk, and how to compute these ratios using actual financial statements.
5. How to adjust financial ratios when making comparison of firms that use
different accounting policies for similar transactions to draw meaningful
conclusions from ratio analysis.
6. How to do an in-depth assessment of the financial reporting risk associated with
the financial statements filed with the SEC.
7. How to prepare 3/5 year pro forma income statement, balance sheet and the
statement of cash flows using historical financial ratios and alternate future
scenarios.
8. How to estimate the future free cash flows and/or other valuation relevant data
from the pro-forma financial statements. How to compute the associated
discount rate i.e. firm risk from publicly available information.
9. How to value the company’s stock using multiple valuation techniques and
issuing a buy/sell/hold recommendation on the firm stock.
10. How to effectively communicate financial information to non-technical users.

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Curriculum Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course students are expected to be able to demonstrate:

1. Critical Thinking Skills:

As evidenced by:
• Demonstrating an understanding of the integrative roles of accounting and finance within an
organization.
• Learning to identify accounting discrepancies in financial statements

2. Quantitative & Technical Skills:

As evidenced by:
• Demonstrating an understanding of the components of a financial statement.
 Learning to read financial statements.
 Using the information from financial statements to compute financial ratios in order to make
important strategic financial decisions for an organization.

V. Outline of Subject Matter

Active Possible
Teaching Active
Week Topics/Concepts
Hours per Learning
Faculty Tools
1 Accounting: 2 Overview of financial reporting Environment; Role of Accounting
Finance: 2 Information in Markets. Preparation of primary financial statements. Accrual Case
versus cash basis of income measurement.
2 Accounting: 2 Revenue recognition and Income measurement differences across industries. Case
Finance: 2 Understanding core versus transitory elements of income statement. Analyze
profits of operating and geographical segments using common-size and trend
statements to forecast future profits.
3 Accounting: 2 Preparation and Analysis of Statement of Cash Flows. Develop tools to Case
Finance: 2 evaluate data in the statement of cash flows. How to derive various free cash
flows from the SCF.
4 Finance: 4 Ratio Analysis. Use financial ratios over time to assess firm’s changing Cases
profitability and risk. Use of DuPont and multi-level decomposition to make
an assessment of the factors contributing to the change over time. ROA and
ROCE relationship and the role of leverage.
5 Finance: 4 Assessment of Financial Reporting (Beneish) risk. Multi-level time-series Circuit City
and cross-sectional evaluation of ratios for two firms belonging to the same versus Best
industry Buy
(Assessment
of critical
thinking
and
quantitative
and
technical

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skills
learning
objective)
6&7 Accounting: 8 Impact of accounting policy for inventory, PP&E and leases and Inter- Starbucks;
corporate Investments on reported financial ratios. How to correct for Staples,
distortions caused by the choice of accounting policy. OfficMax &
Office
Depot
(Assessment
of critical
thinking
and
quantitative
and
technical
skills
learning
objective)
8 Accounting: 2 Preparation of Pro-forma income statement, balance sheet and the statement Coke
Finance: 2 of cash flows for 5 future years using past performance, industry knowledge, (Assessment
and knowledge about the firm. of critical
thinking
and
quantitative
and
technical
skills
learning
objective)
9 Accounting: 2 How to value a firm’s stock by applying various valuation models to the pro- IBM
Finance: 2 forma financial statements of any firm. Sensitivity analysis and (Assessment
understanding market valuations. of critical
thinking
and
quantitative
and
technical
skills
learning
objective)
10 Accounting: 2 Student Project Presentations Closing
Finance: 2 discussion
on
integration
of
accounting
and finance
in strategic
decision
making

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within an
organization

VI. Methods of Instruction

This course is taught through classes conducted using a combination of lecture/discussion

format. Lecturing will be limited to a summary of the major valuation, measurement, or
disclosure issues related to the topic. Discussion will focus on illustrational examples from
published reports and cases that are assigned for the meeting. Some lecture and class
discussion will involve spreadsheet-based computations. Active interaction between the
instructor and students is expected. To this end, students are encouraged to volunteer to be a
lead discussant of a problem/case that will be discussed in class.

Instructors in planning the exams, and other grading procedures, should adhere to the relevant
University Policy on “Grades, Grading Procedures, and Final Assessments, Final Course.”

The textbooks for this course should be chosen in accordance with the University Policy on
textbooks. There are a number of appropriate textbooks for this course. Following is a
suggestion for one accounting and one finance text book based on the content of this specific
course:

Suggested Texts:
Revsine, Lawrence, Daniel W. Collins, W. Bruce Johnson and H. Fred Mittelstaedt
Financial Reporting and Analysis. Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill Irvin, 2008.

Financial Management (12thEd.), Brigham/Ehrhardt (Thomson-SouthWestern ISBN-

10: 0-324-64908-8)

Student learning outcomes will be assessed based on student performance on (1) homework
assignments, (2) examinations and quizzes, and (3) semester long comprehensive project.

VII. Instructional Policies Requirements

The students are expected to comply with the universally accepted norms of considerate
and courteous behavior, and with all University rules and policies found in the current
University Catalog, including the Withdrawal Policy and Policy on Cheating and
Plagiarism.

Students are expected to attend classes regularly and be responsible for all materials
covered in class. A make-up exam will only be administered in case of a dire emergency
and documented proof of such a situation must be provided. Students must refer to the
specific university policy on these issues.

The instructors reserve the right to make any changes to this syllabus. The students shall be
notified and given sufficient notice about any such changes.

Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities are responsible for notifying their
instructor as early as possible of their needs for an accommodation of a verified disability.

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A student with a disability is urged to consult with Disabled Student Services as soon as
possible in order to identify possible accommodations to enhance academic success.

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