Project Summary: Financial Management Fall 2015 Wall Street Journal Project Wal-Mart (WMT) Finance is one subject in which you, the student, can participate actively, at least on paper, in the content of the course. The following project runs for the duration of this course and is divided into three parts. PART 1 You are required to collect daily data on assigned statistics. The data needed to complete this part of the project are readily available in the Wall Street Journal. Each day during the course term (starting Tuesday, September 1, 2015 and ending Wednesday, November 25, 2015) you should go to http://online.wsj.com. The project requires you to complete the following data sheet during the semester. The first section is devoted to stocks. I have selected one stock for you to watch. My choice is (see Announcement). The capital letters that appear after the firms name are ticker symbols that are used to identify each firm whose shares are traded on New York or American stock exchanges or through the National Security Dealers Automated Quotation system (NASDAQ). If you follow specific securities for an extended period of time, you may start to remember them in terms of the symbol instead of the companys name. THE DATA SHEET: _______________________________________________________________________ Date 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 S & P 500 Stock Yield on Six Month Treasury Bills Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Index U.S. Corporate Yield (%), 52 Week Range EURO (In US Dollars) Gold (Cash Price) London p.m. fixing On the first row, record the value of Standard & Poors 500 Stock Index, which in aggregate measure of the stock market. If the market rises during the semester, the value of the index will rise. Conversely, if the market declines, the value of the index will fall. The S&P 500 index is available in the Wall Street Journal and is found by entering online.wsj.com. In upper right corner is Market . Value of S&P 500 is listed. On the next line, record the closing price of the stock chosen for you. This is found by entering Market Data. Click on U.S. Stocks (at top). In upper top right of page enter your stock symbol in News, Quotes, Companies... The Journal is published six (6) days a week while the Stock Market trades five (5) days a week. Statistics for Monday to Friday are found in Tuesday to Saturday paper. On row 3, record the yield on six-month treasury bills. Enter Market Data. This is found by clicking on Bonds, Rates & Credit Markets. In upper left is Treasurys. Record Yield for 6-Month Bill. On row 4, record the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Rate Yield. It is found by entering Bonds, Rates & Credit Markets. Under Complete Bonds, Rates & Credit Markets Data, enter Bond & Index Benchmarks. Record the Yield (%) for Latest 52 Week Range. On row 5, record the price of the Euro in U S Dollars. In Market Data enter Currencies. Record Last (bid) for Euro. Remember: If interest rates rise during the semester, the yields on the treasury bills will rise and the price of your stock should fall. Part II: To further follow your assigned stock, refer to your stock listing obtained in Row 2 above. Print out two (2) Articles per week from Latest News. At the end of the course, organize the articles and create a scrapbook. Part III: Additional questions must be typewritten or equivalent. Determine what the BETA is for your assigned company. State the date and source of your information. BETA may be found in Value Line (La Roche College Library Reserve Desk) or through Yahoo on-line. What happened to interest rates during the semester (as indicated by the yield on the six month treasury bills and by the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Yield? Did stock prices move in the opposite direction? Would you invest in the assigned company? Why? As part of your analysis, calculate the following statistics for your assigned company: Profit Margin Return on Assets Return on Equity Revenue Total Debt Current Ratio Ratios are available at www.yahoo.com. Click on Finance (top left). Place your Company stock symbol in the Enter Symbol box (top left) and click. Click on Key Statistics (left column). Find ratios.