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The specific purposes of this project are:

1. Apply to actual companies the basic knowledge and analytical techniques learned from our course.

2. Prepare vertical common-size financial statements, horizontal common-size financial statements, and various profitability and risk ratios.

3. Compare the calculated results with competitors and across different years.

4. Summarize the analyses and make investment recommendations.

You will be analyzing the following firms:

a. United Airlines, Inc.

b. American Airlines, Inc.

For these firms, download the most recent annual report to begin your work, including financial statements, footnotes to the financials, and the management discussions and analyses. Alternatively, you may use the 10-K report. You can download the 10-K from the companys website or http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html (i.e., EDGAR online).

Guidance

The required tasks are detailed below:

(1) Prepare vertical (as well as horizontal) common-size balance sheets and income statements for both companies. Note: Compute for the most recent THREE years.

(2) Prepare comparative analysis (i.e., change of percentage analysis) on income statement and balance sheet for both companies. You should compute for the most recent THREE years.

(3) Prepare ratio analyses (for the same THREE year time period) for both companies. At least, you should include the following ratios in your computations: (1) current ratio, (2) 2

quick ratio, (3) accounts receivables turnover, (4) inventory turnover, (5) asset turnover, (6) profit margin on sales, (7) return on assets, (8) return on equity, (9) earnings per share, (10) dividend payout ratio, (11) total debt to equity, (12) times interest earned, (13) cash from operations to total debt, and (14) book value per share.

(4) Comment on the analytical results of the two companies. Your comments should concentrate on the trends across the companies. In addition to contrasting the ratios between the companies, you should interpret the numbers and make suggestions as to why the ratio of one company might be higher/lower than the other.

(5) Write a conclusive summary on the firms you have studied. Based upon your conclusions, recommend the better performing firm for potential investment. Your conclusions should be based upon, and specifically reference, the analyses prepared in this report.

Report Format Requirements:

A. Report body requirements:

1. Cover page. List the title of the project, your names, and semester/year.

2. Abstract or Executive Summary. This is a separate page. It should cover the purpose of the project, the major findings, and the conclusions/recommendations, in summary form.

3. Table of Contents.

4. Main body. Use the following sequence for report content:

a. Introduction to the two companies and to the purpose of the report

b. Analytical section. This should include all your numerical analyses. This is where you will discuss the results of, comments on, and conclusions about the vertical and horizontal common-size statements, comparative analysis (i.e., change of percentage analysis), and the ratio analyses for both companies.

c. Comparisons of companies and all other analysis (observations and/or interpretations). (You may combine b and c if you wish, as long as both are well covered.)

d. Conclusions and recommendation for investment.

5. References. List all major reference sources.

6. Appendices. Include tables and graphs of your numerical analyses. For reference convenience, assign a title to each separate item, such as Table 1, Exhibit 1, etc.

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