Dr. P.V. Viswanath

pviswanath@pace.edu

Class Notes and Spreadsheets

FIN320 Notes: Corporate Finance
Primary Materials

• Some Importants Terms and Concepts
• Comments from Class
• The Objective Function in Corporate Finance
  Corresponds to Chap. 2 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance (Slides)
  • Examples of Shareholder Activism from Damodaran's site (go to his site for other examples)
    • Secrets: How Funds Vote Your Shares; Managers Usually Get Backing in Ballot Box, New SEC Data Indicate (Oct. 3, 2006)
    • Bull Market Charges Ahead, Led by Activist Shareholders (WSJ)
• Present Value 
  Corresponds to Chap. 3, 5 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance (Slides)
• Understanding Financial Statements
  Corresponds to Chap. 4 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance (Slides)
• Risk and Return
  Corresponds to Chap. 6 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance (Slides)
  Expected Return and the Construction of Portfolios (Slides)
• Estimation of Discount Rates
  Corresponds to Chapter 7 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance. (Slides)
  Excel spreadsheet showing beta estimation and Security Market Line
• Capital Structure: Tradeoffs and Theory
  Corresponds to Chapter 18 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance. (Slides)
• Capital Structure: Models and Applications
  Corresponds to Chapter 19 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• The Determinants of Dividend Policy
  Corresponds to Chapters 21, 22 and 23 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance. (Slides)

FIN 320 Notes: Corporate Finance
Supplementary Materials

• Common Misconceptions in Finance
• The Role of Science in the Study of Finance
  Additional Material Related to Chap. 3 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance
• Determination of the Discount Rate for Risky Assets (including a primer on probability)
  Additional material corresponding to Chap. 5 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• A primer on Probability
• A note on Regression Analysis
• Vassar Stats: Website for Statistical Computation
  Great site for learning more about Statistics, and how to do it!
• Techniques for Constructing Efficient Portfolios
  Contains material useful for Chapter 5 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• The Capital Asset Pricing Model
  Additional material related to Chap. 5 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• Alternative Investment Rules
  Additional Material related to Chapter 7 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• Efficient Capital Markets and Corporate Finance
• Perspectives on Diversification
  Additional Material corresponding to Chapter 5, 17 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• Innovations in Corporate Finance
• Material related to Chapter 17 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• Equity Valuation
  Corresponds to Chapter 23 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance; useful for Chapter 18 as well.
• Options
  Material Related to Chapter 27 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• Campbell Harvey's Notes on Option Valuation
  Additional Material Related to Chapter 27 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• Campbell Harvey's Notes on Option Arbitrage Relations
  Additional Material Related to Chapter 27 of Damodaran's Corporate Finance.
• Asset Based Financing: The case of Leasing

Firm Profiles (for use in exercises)

• Southwest Airlines
• Kohl
• Kraft Foods
• Genentech
• Intel

FIN 320 Spreadsheets

• Excel spreadsheet showing beta estimation and Security Market Line
• Excel file demonstrating how to construct and analyse a portfolio with two assets
• Excel file containing 10 year financial history for AT&T 1988-1997
• Excel file to compute Disney's optimal capital structure
• Excel file to compute Boeing's optimal capital structure (Damodaran's original template)
• Excel file to compute optimal capital structure for TRW, Inc. using 1996 data with my comments
• Excel file to evaluate dividend policy (Damodaran's original template with my comments)
• Excel file with suggested solution for GE's optimal capital structure using data upto 1997

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