Discussion 1

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, go to American Airlines (Links to an external site.)’ and Samsung Electronics (Links to an external site.)’ most recent annual reports by clicking on the “Investor Relations” link found at each company’s website. The companies and their Internet addresses are listed below.

Company Name

Website

Product

American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL)

https://www.aa.com/homePage.do (Links to an external site.)

Airline tickets

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SSNLF)

https://www.samsung.com/us/ (Links to an external site.)

Electronics

American Airlines and Samsung are offering their products and services like many other companies over the internet. In an initial post of at least 200 words use the most recent annual filings for American Airlines and Samsung Electronics in Form 10-K to answer the questions below:

• Determine the following for each company:
  • A product description
  • A product price
  • A list of costs that are required to produce and sell the product selected in the product description as listed in the annual report on SEC Form 10-K
  • Whether the costs identified above are fixed costs or variable costs.
• Which of the products do you believe has the largest markup on variable cost?
• While Samsung is a hugely popular brand, holding its shares has never been easy for U.S. investors. How can an investor buy Samsung stock in the US?

Guided Response: Review several of your peers’ posts. In a post of at least 100 words, respond to at least two of your peers’ posts in a substantive manner. Provide information that they may have missed or may not have considered in regard to why variable-cost pricing can trick managers into setting prices so low that they hurt profits, or worse yet, cause net losses since it does not fully account for fixed costs. Do you agree with your peers’ findings? Why or why not?

Discussion 2

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, please read the Investing Newsletter of Forbes Operating Leverage (Links to an external site.). The Finnish company Rovio Entertainment Corporation (Links to an external site.) that produces and sells the game Angry Birds, following years of falling earnings, job cuts and divestments announced that its revenue increased 34% in 2016 to 190 million euros ($201 million dollars). According to Rosendahl, the operating result improved to a profit of 17.5 million euros from a loss of 21 million in 2015, increasing earnings by 83% (Rosendahl, 2017). In 2015, Rovio Entertainment Corporation announced that its revenues for 2014 decreased nine percent compared to those of 2013; even worse, its earnings had decreased by 73% (Read the article, Investors Take Flight After Angry Birds Maker Warns on Profit (Links to an external site.)).

After reading Forbes’ Investing Newsletter, in an initial post of at least 200 words, explain why relatively small changes in companies’ revenues can result in relatively large changes in their earnings or losses. In other words, if a company’s sales increase 12%, why do its earnings not also increase 12%?

Guided Response: Review several of your peers’ posts. In a post of at least 100 words, respond to at least two of your peers’ posts in a substantive manner. Provide information that they may have missed or may not have considered in regard to operating leverage. A company’s earnings can rise faster, as a percentage, than its revenue due to operating leverage, and operating leverage is due entirely to the fixed costs. Do you agree with your peers’ findings? Why or why not?