Report

FRL 3671 Fall 2019

Term Project Guide

 

Form a team of three to collect information for analyzing the performance of a publicly traded firm that pays dividend, making recommendation on improving the firm’s performance, and writing a report like a consultant. The name of the firm is Carlisle Companies, Inc. In order to help your team with this task, a rather structured guideline is provide below.

 

The Content

The analysis and report should include the following seven items.

 

  1. The Firm’s Description: Identify your firm’s industry and its peer group. Describe the type of business activity the firm is engaged. The source of your information should include IBIS World and Mergent.

 

  1. The Economic and Industry Conditions: Describe the impacts of the current and expected economic conditions on (a) your firm’s industry and (b) on your firm. Make use of the economic indicators. Sources should include IBIS World and Conference Board

 

  1. Ratio Analysis: What do the five major categories of ratio indicate about your firm? Use both cross-sectional and trend Analysis. State what the numbers are revealing. There is no need for general description of ratios, just the application in this case.

 

  1. EVA and MVA: Estimate Economic Value Added and Market Value Added for your firm based on the most recent available data. Interpret the numbers.

 

  1. Free Cash Flow Valuation: Estimate the value of firm based on the Free Cash Flow method using the publicly available analysts’ estimate of the future rates of growth.

 

  1. Financial Need Forecast: Estimate additional funds needed based on the expected one-year sales growth. State what should be based on financing need of financing surplus that you find. Do growth sensitivity analysis.

 

  1. Write Recommendation for Improvement: Provide a precise set of recommendations for improving the performance of your firm. This should be based on your work in steps I through 6. You can make use of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis as well. If you would like, you may do additional analysis before writing this section 7. The report should be 10 pages, 1.5 spaced.

 

 

 

Sources of Data

Your project should use data from Bloomberg and from the CPP Library online databases. The data from the CPP Library should include, but not be limited to IBISWorld, S&P, Value Line Mergent Online, and the Conference Board.  Use of additional authentic sources of information is recommended.

 

 

The Structure and Procedure

Observe the following in working on the term project.

 

  1. In your report, give exact reference to all sources of your information. In writing your report, keep facts and opinions clearly separated. In addition, make it clear whether the opinion is yours or someone else’s.

 

  1. Use Chicago citation style for giving reference to the sources used.

 

  1. Use both headings and subheadings in each of the 7 segments of your report as needed.

 

  1. Create and use your own charts and graphs in your analyses and report.

 

  1. Each member of the team is responsible for all parts of the project and should participate in all parts of the work in all phases of the work and fully cooperate with the other team members.

 

Keep track of your team members’ work on term project from the start to the end for evaluating their work at the end. There is peer evolution form on Blackboard that should be when the project is completed. If a team member is not cooperating, let me know as soon as possible so I can help resolve the issue. Your evaluation can affect the score of your teammates.

 

  1. Maintain an electronic folder containing all articles and data collected for the project in the original form until you receive the grade for the project. I may ask you to make it available to me without any modification.

 

Recourses

Make use of the resources available at the CPP Library for working on this term project.

 

The CPP Library has several topics under Research Tutorial (http://www.cpp.edu/~library/reference-instruction/tutorials/index.shtml).  Make use of them.

 

In particular, watch the video under Using and Citing Information (https://connect.cpp.edu/research101_pt5_sec0/) before starting your data collection.

 

Mrs. Julie Shen, the CPP Business Librarian, has prepared a page for our FRL 367 (http://libguides.library.cpp.edu/c.php?g=569409&p=3923815) on the CPP Library website that has a list of relevant data bases available on the library website.  Use this resource