Assignment 1: Financial Research Report
Due Week 10 and worth 300 points

Imagine that you are a financial manager researching investments for your client that align with its investment goals. Use the Internet or the Strayer Library to research any U.S. publicly traded company that you may consider as an investment opportunity for your client. (Note: Please ensure that you are able to find enough information about this company in order to complete this assignment. You will create an appendix, in which you will insert related information.)

The assignment covers the following topics:

• Rationale for choosing the company for which to invest
• Ratio analysis 
• Stock price analysis
• Recommendations

Write a ten to fifteen (10-15) page paper in which you:

1. Provide a rationale for the U.S. publicly traded company that you selected, indicating the significant factors driving your decision as a financial manager.
2. Determine the profile of the investor for which this company may be a fit, relative to that potential investor’s investment strategy. Provide support for your rationale.
3. Select any five (5) financial ratios that you have learned about in the text. Analyze the past three (3) years of the company’s financial data, which you may obtain from the company’s financial statements. Determine the company’s financial health. (Note: Suggested ratios include, but are not limited to, current ratio, quick ratio, earnings per share, and price earnings ratio.)
4. Based on your financial review, determine the risk level of the company from your investor’s point of view. Indicate key strategies that you may use in order to minimize these perceived risks.
5. Provide your recommendations of this stock as an investment opportunity. Support your rationale with resources, such as peer-reviewed articles or material from the Strayer Library.
6. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites to not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

   

PART I: SHORT RESPONSE

Write a response to the following prompt using proper APA Style.

Prompt: You will select a topic for your ceremonial speech.  Limit the scope of your topic based on the idea that you can present the actual speech in four to seven minutes.

Step 1: Review the information presented in Module 8 that explores ceremonial speeches.  In particular, focus on the situations in which you might need to present a ceremonial speech and principles to use to present a ceremonial speech effectively.

Step 2: Select an occasion or situation for your ceremonial speech.

Step 3: In a word processing document for this assignment, determine and enter the following information about your topic:

• oDescription of the setting (occasion or situation) for your ceremonial speech
• oDescription of the audience for your speech (you get to define your audience)
• oTopic
• oSpecific purpose
• oThesis
• oQuestion based on thesis
• oThree to five main points

Step 4: Save and submit your document.  Remember to use proper APA Style.

PART II: SPEECH

Modules 5 through 8 Homework Assignments will be a continuation of the speech process.  You will construct your speech by answering the following prompt, which will be given at the beginning of each homework assignment.  This is a step-by-step process.  As long as you read the textbook, read the online material, and complete the activities, you will not encounter much difficulty.

Prompt: The Internet is home to worldwide content, which can be informational and sometimes controversial.  Should the Internet be censored by the government?  Develop a persuasive speech that argues for or against having the government censor the Internet.  You will construct a traditional, five-paragraph speech (introductory paragraph, 3 body paragraphs, concluding paragraph) that answers this prompt.  The total length of pages should not exceed 3 typed pages.

The U.S. government has put in place IPv6-compliance mandates to help with the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition. Such mandates require government agencies to have their websites,  email and other services available over IPv6.

Let’s consider that you’ve been appointed as the IPv6 transition manager at a relatively small branch of a government agency (e.g., a branch of the Social Security agency in a medium-size town). Your main responsibility is to produce a plan with a timetable for achieving compliance with the IPv6 mandate.  The plan should specify the guidelines, solutions, and technologies for supporting IPv6 throughout the agency branch. The plan should include the following, among other things:

• Summary of the applicable government IPv6 mandate
• Brief description of the networking facility at the branch (LANs, servers, routers, etc.)
• Summary of the main IPv6-related RFCs that pertain to the IPv6 support
• Cooperation with ISPs and equipment vendors to implement IPv6 support
• Summary of the solutions and technologies to be employed in implementing IPv6 (e.g., dual-stack, tunneling, translation)
• Timetable for completion of IPv6 transition
• Plan for testing the IPv6 compliance in expectation of an audit by the government

Present an example of an unsound valid deductive argument and a sound valid deductive argument from the media. Outline both arguments presenting the premises and the conclusions of both. Explain why you believe the arguments are sound and unsound. Include a URL to the arguments drawn from a media source. You may draw from the week’s required multimedia for examples. If you are unable to locate examples from the media, you may identify arguments from your life. After you have presented your deductive examples, present an example of an inductive argument from the media and determine whether it is strong or weak. Explain your reasoning about why it is strong or weak, and then explain how the argument might be strengthened. Include a URL to the argument drawn from a media source. If you are unable to locate examples from the media, you may identify an argument from your life.

You must post to this discussion on at least four separate days of the week and your posts must total at least 400 words as you address the questions noted above. Your first post must be completed by Day 3 (Thursday) and the remainder of your posts must be completed by Day 7 (Monday).  You must answer all aspects of the prompt at some point during the week.  Also, be sure to reply to your classmates and instructor.  Try to attempt to take the conversation further by examining their claims or arguments in more depth or responding to the posts that they make to you.  Keep the discussion on target and try to analyze things in as much detail as you can.

Guided Response: Evaluate your classmates’ assessments of the deductive and inductive arguments, and then explain whether you agree or disagree with their analyses. If you see things from a different perspective, attempt to provide a counter-example that demonstrates your own perspective.

Using your current work organization (or an organization of interest) and a second organization in the same industry as the subject matter, research the elements of business, compare and contrast the two selected organizations, and prepare an APA formatted paper that:

• Analyzes the basic legal, social, and economic environment in which the organizations operate
• Analyzes the managerial, operational, and financial issues impacting the organizations including:
  • Company Culture and Performance
  • Promotion Policies
  • Strategic Decisions Making
  • Decision-Making Style
  • Management Style
  • Leadership Style
  • Communication Style
  • Use of SWOT Tool
  • Operations Strategy Framework
• Analyzes the impact of potential change factors as they relate to the functions of management for both organizations including:
  • Changing External Conditions

Be sure to use a minimum of three external sources to support your analyses.

This assignment will also be assessed using additional criteria provided here.

Submit your assignment.

Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:

1. TITLE PAGE. Remember the Running head: AND TITLE IN ALL CAPITALS
2. ABSTRACT. A summary of your paper…not an introduction. Begin writing in third person voice.
3. BODY.  The body of your paper begins on the page following the title page and abstract page and must be double-spaced (be careful not to triple- or quadruple-space between paragraphs). The type face should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics except as required for APA level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 5-6 pages. In-body academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.
4. REFERENCE PAGE.  References that align with your in-body academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hang indention, italics, and upper and lower case usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the Reference Page is not a bibliography but a further listing of the abbreviated in-body citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-body citation.