01 Feb You will benefit most from

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 1 discussion

DQ1 Share Value Maximization

What is the meaning of share value maximization? If a firm attempts to maximize its fundamental stock price, is this good or bad for society? Explain.

DQ2 Careers in Finance

Because this is a finance class, it is important to explore the different careers and certifications within the field of finance.

Visit the University’s Career Network or via your Campus home page.

Learn more about Career Services

Listen to an overview about Career Services. Review the following Career Services resources:

Career Assessment: Provides you with the ability to take up to four career assessments in Focus2 and to search occupations in four different ways.

Career Documents: Provides you with the ability to create cover letters, resumes, video resumes, assessments, and portfolios in your career that may be used to create a website to showcase your unique skills, abilities, and knowledge to a potential employer.

Write a few paragraphs, of 150 words or more, discussing a career in finance and whether that career requires a certification or not, the expected salary, and any specific requirements for the career.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 2 discussion

DQ1 Sometimes you have to look beyond what is presented to question what is reported or provided in an opinion. Numbers can be misleading and you should learn to question assumptions regarding the numbers presented. This will in turn provide you with greater insight into the realities of the situation.

Topic 1: Case Study

Please read the Harvard Case Study: “eBay Inc.: Internet Success or Fairy Tale?” by David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen. This case study can be found in the Harvard Case Study website. This link is in your Syllabus.

This will take you to an “Authorized Student register/log-in” page. If this is your first course pack purchase, you need to register on the site to create a username and password. If you have previously purchased a coursepack, log in with your existing username and password. Follow the prompts to login and purchase the coursepack.

Please answer the following questions about the case study:

Use the 2002 Financial Statement data to replicate the Meyer’s report calculations that illustrate the following conclusion based on the 2001 data reached in the report: eBay has never been profitable. Why? Why not?

Do you agree with Meyer’s report concept of “unfettered” cash flow? Why? Why not?

What other conclusions can you reach about the company from the case study?

DQ2 Financial Ratios

Why is it sometimes misleading to compare a company’s financial ratios with those of other firms that operate in the same industry?

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 3 discussion

DQ1 It is important to estimate risk and return for both individual assets and portfolios. Discussing the relationships between these will provide a better understanding of how greater the probability is of actual returns.

Topic 1: Bond Prices and Interest Rates

Discuss the relationship between the price of a bond and interest rates. Why does the price of a bond change over its lifetime? Please offer a quantitative example to demonstrate this relationship.

DQ2 The Real World

In the real world, is it possible to construct a portfolio of stocks that has an expected return equal to the risk-free rate? Provide examples.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 4 discussion

DQ1 Capital budgeting is a vital part of a firm’s decision making. Each approach will provide a piece of information to help analyze potential projects to make informed decisions.

Topic 1: Capital Budgeting

From a financial manager’s perspective, discuss the capital-budgeting process used to identify projects that add to the firm’s value. How do capital-budgeting decisions help to define a firm’s strategic direction?

DQ2 The Asset Pricing Model

Research and define Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT). How are they the same and how are they different?

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 5 discussion

DQ1 Examining the effects of a company’s financial leverage on stock prices, earnings per share, and cost of capital is important to a firm’s capital structure.

Topic 1: Bankruptcy

Your friend says that their new company’s assets do not equal liabilities plus shareholder’s equity. Does your friend describe a legal or economic bankruptcy? Explain your answer.

DQ2 Capital Structure Decisions

Discuss what issues managers should consider when making capital structure decisions? Why would companies have different capital structures? Explain.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 6 discussion

DQ1 Take control of your money! This concept is extremely important because it can influence a company’s return and your capital structure.

Topic 1: The Firm’s and Your Personal Capital Structure

How does a firm’s capital structure relate to your personal capital structure?

In what ways are they similar?

Provide examples of how you use debt and equity in your personal financial life that parallels the basic capital structure decisions made by a firm.

DQ2 Career Aspirations

How might what you have learned in this class impact your future career? Be specific and discuss a particular position you aspire to and explain how the position you chose might be affected by what you learned in this course.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 1 Assignment

Your Assignment will be assessed by the following course outcomes:

GB550-1: Evaluate the impact of financial management practices on organizational decision-making.

PC-5.1: Use language that is clear, concise, and organized.

One career role in the financial planning industry is that of the investment advisor. In this Assignment, you act in this role for the sake of the mini-case study to respond to questions regarding financial management practices that affect organizational decision-making. Read the case and the questions carefully and respond in a thorough manner.

Complete the Chapter 1 mini-case, p. 55–56. Prepare this Assignment as a Word® document. List each

question (a–r), followed by your answer. Please submit this Assignment through the Dropbox. Add

Assignment Checklist and Deliverables

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 2 Assignment

Ratio analysis provides useful information for a company’s operations and financial conditions. Conducting analysis in a mechanical, unthinking manner is dangerous, but when ratio analysis is used with good judgment, it can provide useful insights into a firm’s operations and identify the right questions to ask.

In the provided scenario, you address the time value of money also known as discounted cash flow analysis. This type of analysis is crucial to being able to viably analyze financial statements.

Complete Chapter 2 problem, 2-8, page 93

Complete Chapter 3 problem, 3-11, pages 129–130

? The start-up firm you founded is trying to save $10,000 in order to buy a parcel of land for a

proposed small warehouse expansion. In order to do so, your finance manager is authorized to

make deposits of $1250 per year into the company account that is paying 12% annual interest.

The last deposit will be less than $1250 if less is needed to reach $10,000.

o How many years will it take to reach the $10,000 goal and how large will the last deposit

be?

Provided scenario questions (see rubric)

Prepare this Assignment as a Word document. List each question followed by your answer.

Please submit this Assignment through the Dropbox.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 3 Assignment 1

Your Assignment will be assessed by the following course outcome:

GB550-2: Calculate the value of a firm through the use of discounted cash flow analysis.

Yield to Maturity and Required Rate of Return

A company is like a portfolio of projects. It is important to determine each project’s contributions to risk of the company’s cash flows.

There are two Assignments due.

Assignment 1: Problems

Complete Chapter 5 problem, 5-2, page 232

Complete Chapter 6 problem, 6-7, page 287

Complete Chapter 6 problem 6-11, page 287

Prepare this Assignment as a Word document. List each question followed by your answer.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 3 Assignment 2

Assignment 2: Final Research Paper

Instructions Summary: Click on the link below to view detailed instructions about the Final Project and deliverables.

As part of your final research paper, complete and submit all of the following parts by the end of this unit:

Part I: The Abstract

Part II: Table of Contents

Part III: Preliminary reference list

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 4 Assignment 1

Assignment 1: Investment Project Value

Your Assignment will be assessed by the following course outcome:

GB550-3: Assess the value of proposed investment projects.

This Assignment addresses assessing the value of investment projects. Prepare this Assignment as a Word document. List each question followed by your answer.

Assignment 1: Problems

Complete Chapter 9 problem, 9-10, page 407

Complete Chapter 10 problems: 10-1, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4, 10-5, 10-6, and 10-7, page 443

Please submit this Assignment through the Dropbox.

Review the Assignment iinstructions and grading rubric

Directions for Submitting Assignment 1

Compose your Assignment in a Word document and save it as Username-GB550 Assignment 1-Unit#.doc (Example: TAllen-GB550 Assignment 1-Unit 4.doc). Submit your file by selecting the Unit 4: Assignment 1 Dropbox by the end of Unit 4.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 4 Assignment 2

Assignment 2: Arbitrage Pricing Theory

The Arbitrage Pricing Theory helps calculate required stock returns considering a number of factors. In this Assignment, you will apply Arbitrage Pricing Theory to a business scenario.

Address the following question and problem in a Word document by listing the question or problem first and then your response.

Complete Chapter 25 question, 25-1, page 1,010

Complete Chapter 25 problem, 25-2, page 1,011

Directions for Submitting Assignment 2

Compose your Assignment in a Word document and save it as Username-GB550 Assignment 2-Unit#.doc (Example: TAllen-GB550 Assignment 2-Unit 4.doc). Submit your file by selecting the Unit 4: Assignment 2 Dropbox by the end of Unit 4.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 5 Assignment

Select a publicly held company and analyze its capital-structure, applying the theories and principles found

in Chapter 15 of the text.

The structure of your research paper should include:

? A preview of capital structure issues

? Business and financial risks related to capital-structure

? Modigliani and Miller’s [MM] capital-structure theory

? Criticisms of the MM model and assumptions

? Capital-structure evidence and implications

? Estimating the firm’s optimal capital-structure

A firm’s optimal capital-structure is that mix of debt and equity that maximizes the stock price. At any

point in time, management has a specific target capital structure in mind, presumably the optimal one,

though this target may change over time. For example, financial management may choose a 50% equity

financing [stock] and 50% debt [bond] financing.

Several factors influence a firm’s capital structure, including:

? Business risk

? Tax position

? The need for financial flexibility

? Managerial conservativeness

? Growth opportunities

Business risk is the riskiness inherent in the firm’s operations if it uses no debt.

This report is intended to be a capital-structure analysis of your selected public company. Your paper is

intended to be an executive summary of your analysis, and is limited to a minimum of 5–7 pages of text,

excluding the title page, table of contents, graphs, charts, tables, etc.

Directions for Submitting the Final Project

Compose your research paper in a MS Word® document using 6th edition APA format and citation style

and save it as Username-GB550 Assignment 1-Unit#.doc (Example: TAllen- GB550 Assignment_1-

Unit 5.doc). Submit your file by selecting the Unit 5: Assignment Dropbox.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 6 Assignment

Your Assignment will be assessed by the following course outcomes:

GB550-4: Assess the impact of a firm’s financing decisions based on its capital structure and shareholder distribution policy. After reading about and practicing with some of the concepts found in your chapter reading, you now apply what you have learned to a question and a problem.

This Assignment addresses how to maximize shareholder’s value and how a company chooses the amount of debt to use in its capital structure.

Assignment:

Complete Chapter 12 question, 12-1, page 530

Complete Chapter 15 problem, 15-3, page 647

Prepare this Assignment as a Word document. List each question followed by your answer.

Please submit this Assignment through the Dropbox.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 1 Seminar

Attending live Seminars is important to your academic success, and attendance is highly recommended. The Seminar allows you to review the important concepts presented in each unit, discuss work issues in your lives that pertain to these concepts, ask your instructor questions, and allow you to come together in real time with your fellow classmates.

There will be a graded Seminar in Units 1, 3, and 5 in this course. You must either attend the live Seminar or you must complete the alternative assignment in order to earn points for this part of the class

Option 1- Attend Seminar:

You will benefit most from attending the graded Seminar as an active participant.

In this Seminar, you may discuss any topics related to Units 1 and 2 and/or go over example problems.

Seminar Topic: An Overview of Financial Management and the Financial Environment

Option 2- Alternative Assignment:

If you are unable to attend the Seminar, you must complete the following alternative assignment to earn points for this part of the class. View this week’s archived Seminar and write a 1-page paper, double spaced, that summarizes the Seminar and what you learned. Your paper should be in APA format and cite all references used.

Once completed, submit your alternative assignment to the Seminar Dropbox. For information on how to access the archived Seminar, click on the Additional Help icon below. Your paper should be in APA format and cite all references used. Submit to the Seminar Dropbox.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 3 Seminar

Attending live Seminars is important to your academic success, and attendance is highly recommended. The Seminar allows you to review the important concepts presented in each unit, discuss work issues in your lives that pertain to these concepts, ask your instructor questions, and allow you to come together in real time with your fellow classmates. There will be a graded Seminar in Units 1, 3, and 5 in this course. You must either attend the live Seminar or you must complete the alternative assignment in order to earn points for this part of the class.

Option 1- Attend Seminar:

You will benefit most from attending the graded Seminar as an active participant. In this Seminar, you may discuss any topics related to Units 3 and 4 and/or go over example problems.

Seminar Topic: Risk and Return

Option 2- Alternative Assignment:

If you are unable to attend the Seminar, you must complete the following alternative assignment to earn points for this part of the class. View this week’s archived Seminar and write a 1-page paper, double spaced, that summarizes the Seminar and what you learned. Your paper should be in APA format and cite all references used. Once completed, submit your alternative assignment to the Seminar Dropbox. For information on how to access the archived Seminar, click on the Additional Help icon below. Your paper should be in APA format and cite all references used. Submit to the Seminar Dropbox.

GB550 Financial Management

Unit 5 Seminar

Attending live Seminars is important to your academic success, and attendance is highly recommended. The Seminar allows you to review the important concepts presented in each unit, discuss work issues in your lives that pertain to these concepts, ask your instructor questions, and allow you to come together in real time with your fellow classmates. There will be a graded Seminar in Units 1, 3, and 5 in this course. You must either attend the live Seminar or you must complete the alternative assignment in order to earn points for this part of the class.

Option 1- Attend Seminar:

You will benefit most from attending the graded Seminar as an active participant. In this Seminar, you may discuss any topics related to the Reading and/or go over example problems.

Seminar Topic: Capital-Structure Decisions

Option 2- Alternative Assignment:

If you are unable to attend the Seminar, you must complete the following alternative assignment to earn points for this part of the class. View this week’s archived Seminar and write a 1-page paper, double spaced, that summarizes the Seminar and what you learned. Your paper should be in APA format and cite all references used. Once completed, submit your alternative assignment to the Seminar Dropbox. For information on how to access the archived Seminar, click on the Additional Help icon below. Your paper should be in APA format and cite all references used. Submit to the Seminar Dropbox.