Individual Assignment: Comparative Analysis Problem: Amazon.com, Inc. vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate the inventory section of two companies using basic comparative analysis, and to interpret the data to gain insight about the company's inventory management.

Assignment Steps

Resources: Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making

Write a 1,050-word comparative analysis using the financial statements of Amazon.com, Inc. presented in Appendix D, and the financial statements for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., presented in Appendix E, including the following:

• Compute these 2014 values for each company based on the information in the financial statements:
  • Inventory turnover (Use cost of sales and inventories)
  • Days of inventory
• Conclusions concerning the management of the inventory can you draw from this data. 

Show work on Excel® spreadsheet and submit with analysis.