Financial analysts must evaluate the performance of the company and compare that performance over time. One way to evaluate the financial performance of a company is to calculate financial ratios. Ratios can be used to assess a company’s profitability, liquidity, efficiency, and financial risk (leverage). Changes in these ratios over time can alert a financial analyst to poor management or strong shareholder returns. For this discussion, you will calculate some common financial ratios for your chosen publicly traded company.

Prepare:

Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum,

• Read Chapter 11 of the Essentials of finance.
  • Specifically review the “A Closer Look” feature box in Section 11.3.
• Complete the Week 2 – Learning Activity.
• Make sure you have completed the Week 1 – Assignment 1.

Calculate:

• Calculate two ratios for your chosen company, according to your last name and the list below. Using Appendix A from Week 1, calculate the ratios for your chosen company for the two most recent years available in the financial statements.
  • Last names A through C: Return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE).
  • Last names D through F: Long-term debt to equity ratio and interest coverage ratio.
  • Last names G through I: Gross profit margin and net profit margin.
  • Last names J through L: Current ratio and quick ratio.
  • Last names M through O: Inventory turnover and receivables turnover.
  • Last names P through R: Days sales outstanding and days inventory outstanding.
  • Last names S through U: Book value per share and price-to-book.
  • Last names V through Z: Earnings per share and price-earnings (P/E) ratio.

Need help with your calculations? Check out the videos included in this resource: Week 2 Discussion Help (Links to an external site.).

Write:

In your initial discussion forum post,

• Create a table within your discussion post that includes the following information:
  • the financial data used to calculate each ratio in the 2 years for your chosen company assigned
  • the last 2 years (clearly labeled)
  • the calculations
  • the concluded ratio
    • Need help making a table? Review the How So I Insert a Table Using the New Rich Content Editor as a Student? (Links to an external site.)
  • Explain the two ratios you were assigned measure.
  • Attach your Appendix A (that you completed in Week 1) to your discussion post so that other students can review your data and calculations.

Guided Response: Review several of your colleagues’ posts, and reply to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You must respond to two classmates who have calculated different ratios than you. In your written responses to your classmates, address the following:

• Using the included Appendix A provided by your classmate, confirm the calculated ratios or explain a correction to the calculated ratios in the initial post.
• Provide the calculations for one additional ratio for their company for the 2 most recent years. Choose the ratio from the list of ratios for this discussion.
  • Identify which ratio you are calculating, and provide the financial data used for the ratio as well the concluded ratio.
• State whether or not you believe this additional ratio shows another financial strength for the company or if it shows a weakness for the company.

This assignment asks you to have a little creative-writing fun with a few of this week’s sources. Read the linked primary sources to get into the atmosphere of this intense period of political change and activism. While things like the women’s right to vote and the consumer’s rights to know what is in their packaged meat don’t seem like progressive ideas today, we must be careful not to project our 21st-century outlook onto this time period. I’ll give you an example of this in California History. James D. Phelan, former mayor of San Francisco and Senator for California, was considered one of our state’s leading “progressives” and friend of President Roosevelt. His “progressive” view of California involved an intense, racist campaign to “keep California white” by criminalizing Japanese immigration. Today, this would be considered reactionary, not progressive. Other ideas growing in popularity during this era, like American socialism, remain controversial today.

Assignment Instructions

Step 1: Skim the linked primary sources.

Read this excerpt from The Jungle, written by muckraking journalist Upton Sinclair and published in 1904 (Links to an external site.). This source is not for the faint of heart, but it did lead to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, both endorsed by ‘progressive president’ Teddy Roosevelt. Sinclair originally went undercover to a slaughterhouse/meat-processing factory in order to write an exposé about working conditions. While that aspect of his study appalled some Americans, far more were struck with Sinclair’s descriptions of what was going into their packaged meat products…

Read this article by suffragette Alice Stone Blackwell called “Why Women Should Vote. (Links to an external site.)” Featured in an undated publication sponsored by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, it includes sixteen arguments for women’s suffrage. If these are the arguments made FOR women’s right to vote, consider which major points they are arguing AGAINST? Essentially, what can this document tell us about society’s view of women’s suffrage?

Skim these primary sources that tell the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 in New York City. Think back to the Gilded Age working conditions, immigration boom, and urbanization. While Sinclair’s The Jungle (which was intended as an indictment of the working conditions in meatpacking factories) spurned Americans to enact consumer reforms, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy in 1911 brought national and worldwide attention to the dangerous working conditions and anti-union violence of the USA’s urban factories.

Step 2: Create fake Facebook or Twitter PowerPoint.

First, choose a character from the list of early 19th-century characters below.

Invent an identity that fits the time period. I have included primary source readings above that may be helpful in getting into character.

Potential characters (please choose from the six options below):

1. 1. 1. Muckrakers/investigative journalists (i.e. Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, etc.)
      2. Middle class women reformers (i.e. Jane Addams, Alice Stone Blackwell, etc.)
      3. Populists
      4. Socialists (in the style of Eugene V. Debs)
      5. Laborers/labor union members
      6. Progressive politicians (Teddy Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, William Jennings Bryan, etc.)

Second, decide whether you want to create a fake Facebook page or a fake Twitter page for your character or figure.

Click on the appropriate tab below to download the template and see the specific instructions.

• If you prefer to create a fake Twitter page
• If you prefer to create a fake Facebook page

If you prefer to create a Twitter page

First, download this PowerPoint template

Actions of a fake Twitter page.

For full credit, follow the instructions below:

1. Insert a profile picture. Be sure to include profile photos next to status updates and comments.
2. Insert your character’s name, along with their Twitter handle (e.g., @willyshakes in the example using William Shakespeare). Be sure that Tweets have been change to reflect the new name and handle.
3. Insert a new byline under your profile picture, name, and handle.
4. Replace the background image.
5. Insert six relevant pictures on the left side of the page.
6. Replace the two profiles under the “Who To Follow” section to the left. The people you choose to include can be friends, enemies, political opponents, etc.
7. Change the trending hashtag on the bottom left of the page.
8. Create four Tweets by your character. Replace the pre-existing William Shakespeare Tweets in the template. Make sure each Tweet has the correct profile name and Twitter handle.
9. Create one Tweet by a relevant character of your design. Replace the pre-existing Tweet by Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Make sure this Tweet has a new profile picture, name, and Twitter handle.
10. On the last blank slide, write a short paragraph explaining your Twitter page. Explain why you created the status updates, comments, and information. Essentially, annotate your thinking behind the fake Twitter page.
11. Save your fake Twitter PowerPoint document.

Since we’ve just experienced a big election year, I thought we would focus this assignment on the political parties and the election of 1912. That year, there were four parties with a presidential candidate in the race– Wilson (Democrats), Taft (the Republican sitting president), Debs (Socialists), and former president Roosevelt (formerly a Republican, now with the Progressive or Bull Moose party). Let’s look at the political platforms adopted by the parties to get a glimpse into what life was like in the 1900s and the ways in which politics and society was changing during this period.

Assignment Instructions

Step 1: Skim and assess the primary sources below.

Skim through the political platform of the Populist Party, or People’s Party, written in 1892 (Links to an external site.). Consider what this document can tell us about what is going on in American society just by these demands? You’ll notice that some of these demands have been made policy– the direct election of US senators after 1913, for example.

Skim through the political platform for the Progressive Party, also called the Bull-Moose Party, written in 1912 (Links to an external site.). This was the political party formed by former Republican president Teddy Roosevelt because sitting president (and Roosevelt’s former friend and policy successor) Taft was running again as the Republican choice. Compare to the Democratic (Links to an external site.) and Republican (Links to an external site.) platforms of 1912.

Read this article by Eugene V. Debs called “How I Became a Socialist” from the April 1902 issue of The Comrade (Links to an external site.). Why did Debs write this? Have we read or heard of other concerns about American society that echo Debs’ concerns and observations? Here is the Socialist Party platform (Links to an external site.) from 1912, for further comparison to the other 1912 platforms.

Step 2: Reply to Prompt

Using this week’s sources, respond to the prompt below in a 200- to 300-word discussion post. No formal citations necessary, but do reference the sources to support your ideas. You don’t have to answer all the questions, just the ones that get you writing.

Prompt: Consider how the demands and points made by less popular third parties (like the Populist and Socialist parties, represented in the source below) may have influenced mainstream Democratic and Republican politics. From the four political party platforms drafted for the elections of 1912, what can you tell were the major political debates happening in the US? How did the different political party platforms claim American language and tradition? Reflecting on the background reading, evaluate the ‘progressiveness’ of Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson.

Step 3: Reply to Three (3) Peers

• In a short paragraph between 50 and 100 words, add further supporting details or respectfully disagree with the post’s author using evidence from this week’s readings.
• Respond to as many peers as you like, but you must respond to at least three coursemates.

Please reply to peers who do not yet have replies so that all are included in the conversation.

I’m working on a writing case study and need a sample draft to help me understand better.

Background:

Go back to the “Globe Airlines” case and review it. In particular, review the criteria for the reply to Lyn Smith set out by your immediate supervisor Rita Simmons. Ms. Simmons has now told you that you cannot offer the E-TUVs to the customers.

Assignment:

Prepare a draft letter to Lyn Smith, in which you attempt to refuse her specific requests while doing everything you can (within the criteria/limitations you are working under) to persuade her to return to Globe as a customer in future.

Forward your draft letter to your supervisor, Rita Simmons, as an attachment to a short transmittal memorandum, in which you submit your draft letter to her for review, give a very brief explanation of your approach, and ask her for comment and approval to proceed to send the letter to the customer.

Primary Audience for Assignment #2: Lyn Smith (for the draft letter); Rita Simmons (for transmittal and draft letter)

Assignment Format: Draft letter – Globe to Lyn Smith, appended to a transmittal memorandum (you to Rita Simmons)

Word Count: up to 1000 words for draft letter and transmittal memorandum

Positive emphasis:

1.Avoid defending Globe

2.Do not describe the hub system

3.Do not imply the customer failed in some way

4.Keep negative words to a maximum of 3:

E.g. unfortunately, we regret, poor weather, errors, etc.

Never use:

Incompetency, poor service, failure, see next slide

Structure:

Opening – Buffer (thank her for the feedback and express condolences and congratulations on her mother’s achievement)

Paragraph 2 – Negative message (bad news)

Paragraph 2 (possibly 3) – Alternative and/or benefit

Closing – thank her again for the feedback (you can briefly explain how it has improved service) and express the hope to see her fly again with the airline

Requirements: maximum 1000 words