Principle Of Finance Excel

This is the first of two Excel assignments you will complete in this course. Before you get started, be sure to watch the Mergent Online video.

Please see the below instruction and the Fin 320 PDF and the example excel sheet

Find a Publicly Traded Company

Go to Mergent Online, click on GO, and then click on Mergent Online in the results.  This is the direct link: http://www.mergentonline.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/basicsearch.php  Enter a company name in the Company Search – Enter symbol or Company Name field in the first section (top, left) and wait one moment for a drop-down menu to appear.  If it is a publicly traded company (meaning its stock trades on an exchange where you can buy and sell shares), it will appear in the list below and you will see the company stock ticker symbol and name.  Click on the company name in the list for details, and confirm that this is the company you intended to search for by reading the Business Summary.  Review the information in the blue box at the top of the page and make note of the company’s assigned Sector and Industry

Find Historical Stock Prices

 Click on the Equity Pricing tab.  The Time Period defaults to 3 years.  Click on Report above the Controls box.  Once you see the Historical Pricing, choose Download near the top right of the screen.  Save the Excel file to your computer.  Use the Close price to calculate the percent increase or decrease in the stock price over the seven weekday or three-year period (“rate of return” in rubric).  For example, Apple’s stock price on 8/19/16 closed at $109.36. Seven weekdays earlier, on 8/11/16, it closed at $107.93. If you had bought 100 shares of Apple stock on 8/11/16 at $107.93 and sold them on 8/19/16 at $109.36, you would have earned $143 before taxes, which is a 1.32% rate of return. The calculation is (109.36-107.93)/107.93 x 100 which equals 1.32%.  Apple’s stock price closed on 8/19/2013 at $72.53. The three-year rate of return is 50.77%.

Download Financial Statement Data

 Select the Company Financials tab to retrieve financial statement data.  Balance Sheet data will appear, and it defaults to Annual.  Five years’ worth of data will appear, and you can change to 3 years by selecting that option to the right of the Annuals/Balance Sheet above the Balance Sheet data.  Choose Refresh at the end of the next row.  Choose Download near the top right of the screen.  Save the Excel file to your computer.   Change Balance Sheet to Income Statement and then Cash Flow to get your other financial statements.