MSF 540 - Applied Financial Analysis - Valuation

3.00 credits.

This advanced financial analysis course is specially designed to apply students’ knowledge from all areas of business, along with economics to conduct a series of intensive equity research activities before a buy, sell, or hold investment decision is made on an assigned publicly traded company’s stock. Major activities of the course include 1) reviewing the assigned company’s SEC filings; 2) gathering data with respect to the company’s industry, competitors, clients, suppliers, products and services, management, governance structures etc. 3) analyzing the company’s current financial position; 4) forecasting future profitability and valuation of the company by combining all of the above information and analysis with the company’s financial information, along with the overall geopolitical and economic factors; 5) generate an investment recommendation based on the forecasting model and parameters; 6) present the investment recommendation in front of professional practitioners. Meetings with industry professionals, listening and participating in the target company’s public releases, such as earnings calls, are all integral parts of the course. Essentially, you are exposed to real world practical equity analysis work so to gain hands on experience in the finance profession, in which working with others as a team and active in class discussions and debates are not only encouraged but required in order to succeed. You will be able to develop your skills of critical analysis and writing clarity. As a conclusion of this course, students are expected to gain real-world hands-on experience in reading, interpreting, and analyzing economic events and a company’s financial information in order to produce a research report that will be reviewed and challenged by industry professionals and CFAs.