Equip the student with the knowledge to read, interpret and analyze financial statement data in order to make informed business decisions regarding investment, credit, or resource allocation. Such skills are required for equity and credit analysts, executives, bankers, audi-tors, consultants and other users of financial information.
Prerequisites
Solid grasp of financial accounting concepts and principles. Some notions of finance are also required
Teaching Methods
Lectures and tutorials
Type of Assessment
Individual test and term project
Course program
The Class is divided into three integrated parts:
1. Gathering and assessing information. FA firstly requires an analyst to know what infor-mation he/she needs (in particular, financial information), where to look for that infor-mation, and how to assess its quality.
2. Adjusting financial information. Accounting data presented in the GAAP-based financial statements has to be reformulated to reflect business activities, i.e. how a company works and creates value. The reengineering process regards all the statements, the cash flow statement included. In a few cases, it is up to the analyst to prepare this statement.
3. Elaborating financial information. To delve into the economic contents of the reformulat-ed financial statements, an analyst has to zero in on a company’s profitability, liquidity and long-term solvency. In this respect, «it is inconceivable that accounting data can be ana-lyzed without transferring it into ratios, in one way or another».