Financial Statement Analysis Project

Your Course Project
Financial Statement
Analysis Project — A Comparative Analysis of Kohl’s Corporation and J.C.
Penney Corporation

Below is the link for the financial
statements for Kohl’s Corporation for the 2010 fiscal year ending January 29,
2011. Under the term Groupings Filter, change the term All Forms to Annual
Filings using the drop-down arrow and press Search.

You should then scroll down and select
the 10k dated 3/18/2011 and choose to download in Word or PDF format.

.kohlscorporation.com/InvestorRelations/sec-filings.htm”>http://www.kohlscorporation.com/InvestorRelations/sec-filings.htm

Below is the link for the financial
statements for J.C. Penney Corporation for the 2010 fiscal year ending January
29, 2011. Under the term Groupings Filter, change the term All Forms to Annual
Filings using the drop-down arrow and press Search.

You should then scroll down and select
the 10k dated 3/29/2011 and choose to download in Word format.

.jcpenney.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=70528&p=irol-sec”>http://ir.jcpenney.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=70528&p=irol-sec

A sample project template is
available for download in Doc Sharing. The sample project compares the ratio
performance of Tootsie Roll and Hershey using the 2009 financial statements of Tootsie
Roll and Hershey provided in Appendix A and Appendix B of your textbook.

Description

This course contains a Course Project
where you will be required to submit one draft of the project at the end of
Week 5 and the final completed project at the end of Week 7. Using the
financial statements for Kohl’s Corporation and J.C. Penney Corporation,
respectively, you will calculate and compare the financial ratios listed further
down this documentfor the fiscal year ending 2010 and prepare your comments about the liquidity, solvency,
and profitability of the two companies based on your ratio calculations.The entire project will be graded by
the instructor at the end of the final submission in Week 7 and one grade will
be assigned for the entire project.

Overall Requirements

For the Final Submission:

Your
final Excel workbook submission should contain the following. You cannot use
any other software but Excel to
complete this project.
1. A completed worksheet title page tab,
which is really a cover sheet with your name, the course, the date, your
instructor’s name, and the title for the project.
2. A completed worksheet profiles tab,
which contains a-one paragraph description regarding each company with
information about their history, what products they sell, where they are
located, etc.
3. All 18 ratios for each company with
the supporting calculations and commentary on your worksheet ratio tab. Supporting
calculations must be shown either as a formula or as text typed into a
different cell. The ratios are listed further down this document. Your comments
for each ratio should include more than just a definition of the ratio.
You should focus on interpreting each ratio number for each company
and support your comments with the numbers found in the ratios.
4. The Summary and Conclusions
worksheet tab, which is an overall comparison of how each company compares in
terms of the major category of ratios (liquidity, profitability, and solvency).
A nice way to conclude is to state which company you think is the better
investment and why.
5. The Bibliography worksheet tab must contain
at least your textbook as a reference. Any other information you use to profile
the companies should also be cited as a reference.
Required Ratios for Final Project
Submission
1.
Earnings per share

Current ratio

Gross profit rate

Profit margin
ratio
Inventory turnover
ratio
Days in inventory

7.
Receivables turnover ratio
8.
Average collection period

Asset turnover
ratio
Return on assets
ratio
Debt to total
assets ratio
Times interest
earned ratio
Payout
ratio
Return on common
stockholders’ equity ratio
Free cash flow
Current cash
debt coverage ratio
Cash debt coverage
ratio
Price/earnings ratio [For the
purpose of this ratio, for both Kohl’s and J.C. Penney, use the market
price per share on January 31, 2011.]

The
Excel files uploaded in the Dropboxes should not include any unnecessary
numbers or information (such as previous years’ ratios, ratios that were not
specifically asked for in the project, etc.).

Please
upload your final submission to the Week 7 Dropbox by Sunday at the end of Week
7.
For
the Draft:

Create an Excel spreadsheet or use
the project template to show your computations for the first 12 ratios listed
above. The more you can complete regarding the other requirements, the closer
you will be to completion when Week 7 arrives. Supporting calculations must be
shown either as a formula or as text typed into a different cell. If you plan
on creating your own spreadsheet, please follow the format provided in the
Tootsie Roll and Hershey template file.

Please upload your draft submission
to the Week 5 Dropbox by Sunday at the end of Week 5.

Other
Helpful information:

If you feel uncomfortable with
Excel, you can find many helpful references on Excel by performing a Google
search.

The Appendix to Chapter 13 contains
ratio calculations and comparison comments related to Kellogg and General Mills,
so you will likely find this information helpful.

BigCharts.com provides historical
stock quotes.

Either APA or MLA style can be used
to complete the references on your Bibliography tab. There is a tutorial for
APA and MLA style within the Syllabus.

Grade Information

The entire
project will be graded by the instructor at the end of the final submission in Week
7, and one grade will be assigned for the entire project. The project will count for 18% of your overall course
grade.

Category

Points

%

Description

Documentation
and Formatting

9

5%

The report will be submitted in
the form of an Excel Workbook, with each page (worksheet) of the workbook
named appropriately.Please do not use any other software (such as MS Works or
Lotus) to complete the project.
A quality report will include a title worksheet tab, a worksheet tab for
the profile of the two companies, a worksheet tab for the ratio calculations
and comments, a worksheet tab for the summary and conclusion, proper
citations if applicable, and a Bibliography worksheet tab for the references.

Organization
and Cohesiveness

9

5%

A quality report will include
the content described above in the documentation and formatting section.
The ratios should be listed in the same order in which they appear in the
project information above.

Editing

18

10%

A quality report will be free
of any spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. Sentences and paragraphs
will be clear, concise, and factually correct.Ratios will be expressed as
numbers or percentages, depending on what is appropriate, as is
shown in the textbook.Note that not
all ratios are shown as percentages. Two decimal places is sufficient for
each of the ratios.

Content

144

80%

A quality report will
have correct ratio calculations and accurate supporting commentary. Any
assumptions, if made, should be spelled out clearly. Supporting calculations
must be shown either as a formula or as text typed into a different cell.

Total

180

100%

A quality report will meet or
exceed all of the above requirements.