Dr. P.V. Viswanath

pviswanath@pace.edu

FIN 301: Financial Management Summer 2005

Assignment 1: Group Project -- Portfolio

Pick an industry and keep a log on it. Start out with a brief write-up on the industry. (Make sure that you write in your own words -- if you plagiarize or otherwise copy, you will lose out in more than one way -- one, you won't learn; and, two, I will penalize you heavily in terms of your grade; I may also give you a failing grade in the course, at my discretion.) You can use many sources for this; one good source is the database called NetAdvantage (owned by Standard and Poors). You can access this by going to http://library.pace.edu, clicking on "Articles via Database" and then picking NetAdvantage. Other sources are http://interactive.wsj.com and http://finance.yahoo.com

Describe the industry in brief (who are the key players, what are the major factors affecting the industry, prospects for the industry, etc.)

Then pick one company within the industry and follow it. Choose a prominent company that is in the news. (You can get a feel for how much a company stays in the news by looking at the News listed for the company in http://finance.yahoo.com) Of course, you will need to look at whatever affects this company, whether it's industry news or events related to competitors or whether it has to do with the economy -- whether or not your company is mentioned; as long as it's relevant for your company.

As we go through the course, you should look at the aspects of your company that we work with in class. For example, when we do the financial statements and the financial ratios, you should compute the financial ratios for your company. When we discuss the Dupont model, you should compute the Dupont ratios and discuss the implied business strategies for your company.

Keep the latest version posted on your Group Page on Blackboard. You are required to post at least once every week, by midnight on the Monday of the week. You don't have to post on the last week of classes.

You should also keep a copy of all the materials that you use in your postings. At the end of the course, you should have a write-up of your company and industry. This should not be a hotchpotch of articles and postings. It should be properly arranged with an introduction and an explanation of how all the articles relate to each other. This should be turned in on the day of exams.

Assignment 2: Individual

I will give you additional assignments over the course of the term.