Question

1. Select a publicly traded U.S. corporation you would like to study this semester and ask the professor for permission by posting a response here.
2. You may search for the name of your company and Investor Relations and look for SEC Filings.

Your corporation must meet the following criteria:

• It must be ranked number 500 or higher on the Fortune 500 list for the current year.
• It must have an SEC 10-K report for the current or most recent prior year.
• It must have an Accounts Receivable and Inventory Account.

Your corporation may NOT:

• Be the same corporation you used for SEC projects in other courses.
• Be the same corporation a classmate selected.
• Be a bank or any other type of financial institution.

Discussion Requirements

1. Write the name of the corporation, the stock market where it is traded, and its ticker symbol in the Subject line when you respond to this posting and all other postings related to this project.

For example:

• Under Armour; NYSE: UA
• Apple; NASDAQ: APPL
• Exxon Mobile; NYSE: XOM

2. State why you want to study and prepare a financial analysis of your corporation.

3. Provide a direct link to your corporation's SEC 10-K report for the most recent year. A direct link is a hyperlink that takes you directly to a website where the SEC 10-K report is located. For example, this is the direct link to the 2015 SEC 10-K report for Apple, Inc..

The most direct route to finding the direct link is to use the SEC EDGAR System and search by Company name.

An alternative research method to locate the most current SEC 10-K for your company is to search for the name of your company and the words investor relations. You will need to make selections and click links such as SEC filings and may be required to use the drop down SEC filings menu to select annual as the report type.

4. State your corporation's position on the Fortune 500 List for the current year. Your selected company must be ranked number 500 or higher.

5. Provide page numbers for all four required financial statements:

• Income Statement (it could be listed as the Consolidated Statements of Income.)
• Balance Sheet (it could be listed as the Consolidated Balance Sheet or Statement of Financial Position.)
• Statement of Stockholders Equity (it could be listed as the Consolidated Statements of Stockholder's Equity or Consolidated Statements of Stockholder's Deficit.)
• Statement of Cash Flows

Answer 1

Free cash flows is a measure of financial performance of the entity and is calculated as net income plus depreciation and amortisation expense less change in working capital ( current assets - current liabilities) less capital expenditure.   

Operating cash flow is alike free cash flow except it does not exclude capital expenditure.Both are useful in making comparisons amongst industries and assists in calculating financial ratios. Higher the operating and free cash flow, higher the appreciation in value of shares of the company.