Financial Statement Analysis

Objectives

The course has the following objectives for students:
• Getting familiar with companies’ financial statements, including understanding the main statements, how they are connected and the meaning of their main captions;
• Using the information on the financial statements for decision-making, both from a managerial point of view and from an investment point of view, with focus given to understanding value creation based on information from the financial statements;
• Producing a valuation about the company using the information based on the financial statements (and other relevant sources) while applying fundamental analysis techniques.

General characterization

Code

14508

Credits

2

Responsible teacher

Francisco Martins

Hours

Weekly - Available soon

Total - Available soon

Teaching language

Portuguese | English

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

There is no mandatory bibliography in the course. Optional bibliography includes:
• "Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies," Koller, T., Goedhart, M., and Wessels, D., 5th Edition, 2010, McKinsey & Company Inc. (good introduction to valuation)
• “Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation,” by Penman S. H., 5th edition, 2013, McGraw-Hill.
• "Business Analysis and Valuation: IFRS Edition," by Palepu K., Healy P., and Peek E., 3rd Edition, 2013, South-Western.
• "Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis, and Valuation: A Strategic Perspective," by Wahlen, J., Baginski, S., and Bradshaw, M., 8th Edition, 2014, Southwestern Publishing.
• "The Analysis and Use of Financial Statements," by White G., Sondhi A., and Fried D., 3rd Edition, 2004, Wiley.

Teaching method

Minimal class attendance is mandatory. Through a teaching approach that mixes lectures, class discussions, and assignments, students are challenged to develop critical skills and build the knowledge required to analyze a company.

Evaluation method

The assessment of this curricular unit is done together with the block of curricular units of the same area of knowledge. This assessment has 3 moments, which together define the final grade of the curricular unit:
• Individual exam with a weighting of 50% of the total mark
• Group work with a weighting of 35% of the total grade value
• Individual reflection-action exercise carried out at the end of the curricular unit, with a weighting of 15% of the total grade value. The set of individual action-reflection exercises is a journaling activity, which will constitute, at the end, a learning portfolio capable of synthesising the contributions of the Executive Master for that student.

Subject matter

The course has a practical content and deals with a variety of topics pertaining to the analysis of financial statements and companies as a whole. These include: an overview of the financial statements themselves and how to read them; value creation metrics (return on invested capital and growth) as well as impacts of understanding value creation; discounted cash flow methodology with focus on reformulating the financial statements to better understand the company; and ratio analysis, both with the purpose of analyzing the current situation of the company with regards to decision making and to produce forecasts for a company’s valuation.

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: