CheckPoint: Assessing Financial Statements

Resource:Ch. 2 of Understanding Financial Statements,and Ch. 1 PowerPoint^® (pp. 1-10, 1-11, and 1-13)

Searchthe Internet for the financial statements of your favorite company or your employer. You may either locate the corporate Web site for your chosen company, or you may select a company’s financial statements from the EDGAR database at http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm.

• Post a 200- to 300-word response that includes the following information:
• Three strengths and three weaknesses in the financial statements
• Trends in net profit, debt ratio as a percentage of total assets, and debt as a percentage of total equity
• A review of 2- to 3-year trends and an analysis of positive and negative trends
• A confirmation of whether or not the company is discussing what it intends to do to correct negative trends