In this module you examined balance sheets to determine how different firms finance investment in assets. This discussion activity looks further at financial statements to analyze and compare the financial positions of firms competing in the same industry.
Please read and follow all instructions, which are located under Discussion Activity.
Discussion Activity:
1. Choose two firms that compete within the same industry (e.g., J.C. Penney and Sears, Johnson & Johnson and Merck, Ford and GM).
2.Go to each firm’s website, and then access and download their annual reports (financial statements).
3. Using the accounting data from the firms’ financial statements and the ratios studied in Chapter 9 of the textbook, calculate all ratios for each firm (liquidity ratios, activity ratios, profitability ratios, leverage ratios, and coverage ratio).
4,. Analyze and compare your calculations for the two firms.
5. In this discussion activity, report your figures and analysis. Be sure to include the web addresses (URLs) of the firms whose websites you visited.
