Financial Statement Analysis

Overview

Course code: ACCT-UB.0003

Attendance and penalty for missing classes

Requiring attendance is necessary for several reasons. First, you incorrectly assume you can catch up on a missed class by watching a recording (if available). Videos do not engage your brain as much as a live class. Second, less than 20% of you watch the recording (if available). You are then lost in class, which provides wrong signals to me as an instructor. Third, your absence hurts class discussions. Fourth, you miss out on feedback if you do not work through the questions I pose in class. Fifth, I lose the feedback since there are fewer questions.

The policy below will be in effect only after the add/drop period.

Without mandatory attendance, attendance is often below 50%. Therefore, though I dislike doing this, I penalize absences. If you anticipate being absent for good reasons, please email me well in advance. Please enter "Excused" on the attendance sheet described below to avoid the penalty if I approve. If you miss a class due to emergencies and cannot tell me in advance, do not panic. Take care of the emergency first, and then email me. I will permit you to change the "Absent" to "Excused." But, if you miss a class without a valid reason, there is a penalty, as stated below.

For sections meeting in 150-190 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY missed session unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss two class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.

For sections meeting in 75-80 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY TWO missed sessions unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss four class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.

Please sit in the same seat in every class and display your name tags. For Zoom classes, you must keep your video on AT ALL TIMES. You must also have a good working headset or mic, as it is extremely rude to be inaudible and force me to ask you to repeat yourself. After entering the class, please mark yourself present in the first 20 minutes on the OneDrive sheet (link posted on Brightspace). You will be marked absent if you are more than 20 minutes late unless it is because of factors beyond your control (traffic, subway, interviews running late). You will also be marked absent if you leave the class early unless you have my permission or get it afterward. You will get an F in the course if you are caught cheating on the attendance sheet.

Financial Statement Analysis Spreadsheets

• FSA1:
  • Why is it useful to separate enterprise activities from financial activities?
  • What are the drivers of cash needs of a business? How do they affect the value of a business? Specifically, how do sales growth, profit margins, and level of supporting assets needed and liabilities available affect the cash generated or needed by a business?
  • How do the margins and investment needed affect the return on investment generated by the business? How do businesses with stable cash flows leverage the return on invested capital to generate a higher return on equity for their shareholders?
• FSA2: How should one remove past non-recurring items to forecast the future?
• FSA3: How does one measure the return on investment over horizons longer than one year? What are the advantages of doing so? This spreadsheet introduces two new measures of long-term returns -- return on book equity (ROBE) and return on market equity (ROME).
• FSA4: How does one measure the quality of earnings? This spreadsheet introduces a measure of earnings called Adjusted Cash Earnings (ACE).

Valuation Spreadsheets

• VAL1: How does one forecast future cash flows using the cash flow drivers identified in FSA1? What are the additional inputs needed to derive enterprise value? Why does one need to forecast financial activities?
• VAL2: How does one transform the discounted dividends model (DDM) to connect equity value to three bottom-line numbers that investors care about, namely dividends, book values, and earnings. Specifically, VAL2 connects equity value to dividends, book values, and earnings.
• VAL3: How does one adjust analyst forecasts when one considers forecasts of margin expansion to be too optimistic?
• VAL4: How does the return implied by the stock price and earnings forecasts compare to the return one should expect based on risk? VAL4 computes a new metric titled “Excess Implied Return”(EIR). EIR equals implied return less return required based on CAPM.

Materials

• I use my materials. Therefore, no textbook is required, and you need not purchase anything.

Prerequisites

• A very good background in financial accounting is required. If you think you struggled with the financial accounting course, this course may not be for you.
• You need to bring a computer to class with sufficient battery power. If you have any technical questions, please contact the IT department (212-998-0180), NOT me.
• I will be using Excel 2010. Any version from Excel 2003 to 2010 should work for you.
• Make sure that you can connect your computer to the NYU wireless network.

Help and Office

• Teaching assistant: Check Brightspace. Contact TAs first. Please do NOT copy me on your messages to the TAs.
• Me: dgode@stern.nyu.edu, 212-998-0021, Office: KMC 10-86.

Materials

• I will not require a textbook. All materials are at http://www.godeohlson.com.

Assignments

• The assignments count towards 20% of your grade.
• The assignments appear as tests on Almaris. I may update the deadlines as the course progresses. The deadlines shown at Almaris are the correct deadlines.
• Some assignments are short; others are long. Please manage your time.
• NO EXTENSIONS will be granted for any reason except medical or family emergencies. If you have religious or personal conflicts, please submit the assignments early. The related materials are covered well in advance of the assignments. Please do not email me to request extensions unless you have a medical or family emergency.
• You can collaborate with others while doing assignments.
• All assignments are mandatory. After the first day of class, you can view the online assignments at http://www.almaris.com/assess/ using your official Stern email (no aliases) and the most recent password emailed to you by Almaris. The Almaris password is different from the Stern password. To retrieve the password, use your full email with the domain name as it appears in Brightspace. The domain name could be @nyu.edu for some of you, while for others, it could be @stern.nyu.edu. I do not control this mess.
• Assignments are marked “late” if you do not meet or exceed the passing score described below before the deadline. There is no additional penalty for lateness other than a low score.
• Assignments have a “passing score” of either 100% or less than 100%.
  • I set the passing score at 100% if you should ace the assignment. In reality, there is no passing grade. Whatever you get on your last attempt is your final score. You are graded on accuracy but not the number of attempts. There is a difference between “passing” and getting full credit. If you get 70/100 on your final attempt, you “pass,” but you do not score 100.
  • I set the passing score of less than 100% on a few assignments if you might not get every question right. Any score above that score is rounded up to 100%. For example, if the passing score is 90%, and you get 93%, your score is rounded up to 100%. I do the rounding up in a separate spreadsheet. You will see only the raw score online.
• Almaris is not affiliated with Stern in any way. It is offering these tests to Stern at no charge.
• Almaris staff is not authorized to extend deadlines under any circumstances. Only my TAs can do that. Almaris staff will reply to your emails only if they pertain to technical issues with the Almaris system. Please contact Stern IT for technical issues with your network.

Exams and Grading

• The class relies on your participation. However, you will not be penalized for missing classes. You need NOT email me if you plan to miss a class, be late, or leave early.
• If you have a qualified disability and require academic accommodation during this course, please contact me directly. I will arrange a separate room/time for you.

The grades will be based on the assignments (20%), midterm exam (30%), and final (50%). If your score on the midterm is poor, but the final score is good, your final will count towards 100%. You need not get a full score on the assignments; any score above 80% is considered a passing score. The final exam will not be rescheduled for any reason except medical or family emergencies.

Schedule

All classes will be held in KMC 4-80 on Tu and Th from 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM except during the spring break.

Midterm: 30%

Final: 50%