Investment Research Assignment
BA 303 – Business Finance
Investment Research Assignment
Imagine that you have $100,000 to invest. You are going to invest it all in one investment for the next five years, at least, at which point you will re-evaluate both your investment and personal situations.
You will invest it all in one of the following investments – these are your only two options:
A bank account earning 5% per year.
Common stock of __________.
You will be performing the analysis from the perspective of an investor who is 25 years from retirement, and the investor’s income is greater than living expenses. The investor has a liquid net worth of $1,000,000 of which 40% invested in the S&P 500 index, 40% in a medium-duration, high-quality bond fund and 20% in a savings account earning 5% interest per year. You are to determine if the investor should take $100,000 from the savings account and purchase $100,000 of this company’s common stock.
Where are you going to invest your $100,000? Why?
Your recommendation should comprehensively but succinctly provide sufficient information for the investor to approve your recommendation by being able to address the investor’s reasonable questions including the following:
What is the problem? What are you trying to figure out?
What historical financial information helped you make your decision – ratios, growth rates, margins, projections, competition?
What role does risk play and how do you account for it in your analysis?
What industry information helped you make your decision – such as competition, overall markets, and state of the economy?
What are you assuming about the future?
What are the critical factors that led you to choose the option you chose?
Please limit your response to 3 pages, typed, double-spaced, plus no more than two pages of exhibits. The project is both a math and a story assignment: your math has to support your story, and your story has to support your math. Three pages of text plus two pages of exhibits is not a lot to cover this assignment; you need to be concise, relevant, and convincing in those five pages.
There is no right answer. But there are right approaches, wrong answers, and wrong approaches. You will be graded on the quality of your approach, the accuracy of your analysis, and how convincing your argument is.
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Apple
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Columbia Sportswear
Mentor Graphics
Craft Brew Alliance
Google
Under Armour
Facebook
Krispy Kreme
Walmart
Boeing
Oracle
Cisco
McDonald’s
Home Depot
Lowe’s
Exxon Mobil
Chevron
Procter & Gamble
Pfizer
Walt Disney
Caterpillar
PepsiCo
Yum! Brands
Domino’s Pizza
Starbucks
Costco
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Amazon.com
Netflix
Herbalife
Willamette Valley Vineyards
Vail Resorts
Target
Stericycle
Kroger
Nordstrom
UPS
FedEx
Goldman Sachs
Johnson & Johnson
Intel
Shimano
Wells Fargo & Co
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Learning Goals and Objectives
Learning Goal #1: Problem Solving & Decision Making
Graduates of the Business Administration Baccalaureate program will have the capacity to recognize and understand a wide range of common and novel business problems and to follow.
Objectives:
Students will construct clear and specific problem statements using contextually relevant evidence.
Students will employ in-depth information and data from relevant sources throughout the problem-solving process.
Students will thoroughly evaluate solutions from multiple dimensions and use appropriate analytical tools.
Students will make decisions based on a synthesis of research, data analysis, and evaluation of solutions.
Learning Goal #3: Business Communication
Graduates of the Business Administration Baccalaureate program will effectively communicate complex information with a variety of stakeholders to increase knowledge and achieve objectives.
Objectives:
Students will demonstrate a thorough consideration of context, purpose, and audience in the communication.
Students will present a central message in a clear, concise, and convincing manner.
Students will skillfully articulate complex information in a manner that allows the message to be understood by multiple stakeholders.
Students will demonstrate a consistent use of credible, relevant sources that support the message or credibility of the communicator.
UNDERGRADUATE BA & BS PROGRAMS
LEARNING GOAL RUBRIC
PROBLEM SOLVING & DECISION MAKING
UNDERGRADUATE BA & BS PROGRAMS
LEARNING GOAL RUBRIC
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
