15.493  Practice of Finance: Perspectives on Investment Management (H2)

Please bring your computers to class tomorrow. I will give you 5-10 minutes at the end of class so you can fill in your on-line course evaluation. Thank you. 

For Priceline, the readings consist of an earnings release, an earnings call transcript with the company and a form 10k, all from 2007. This is the information Paul Reeder was analyzing when he made his investment in Priceline. I have also included a short S&P Analyst Report from 2013.

For the One Page Paper address two quesstions:

1. What are the two most important concepts you learned from the Buffett readings and why?

2. What do you think Mr. Buffett would recommend on Apple stock and why?

Dear Class

The eight companies you can select from for the final paper are:
- Lululemon Athletica (LULU)
- Qualcomm (QCOM)
- First Solar (FSLR)
- F5 Networks (FFIV)
- Microsoft (MSFT)
- Pandora (P)
- LinkedIn (LNKD)
-Elan Corporation (ELN)
additional company- Edwards Bioscience (EW)

Suggestions for what the paper should include:
• 1 page describing the company, interesting facts about the company, the company's competitors broadly defined and then the 3-4 key competitors.
• 1-2 pages on the company's 3 or more competitive strengths, their 3 or more competitive weaknesses and explain why for each one.
• 1-2 pages of what you think will be the 1-2 key issues that will determine the near term and long term stock price (they could be different for each time frame).
• 1-2 pages creating an estimated Income Statement for 2013-2015 (the next 3 years).
• 1-2 pages- examine the income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet- explain one or two interesting financial details for each statement that is relevant in analyzing the stock and why. (it could be a ratio, a percentage, an absolute number, or some footnote, etc)
• 1-2 pages- use two different valuation metrics that you think are appropriate for the company and explain why they are appropriate. Then determine if the stock is a BUY or SELL and explain why you made that decision.

These are just suggestions. Feel free to include any additional material that you think would be valuable. You are on your own for this assignment. We will not be posting any Wall Street Reports for the assignment. Look forward to your papers.

Feel free to let me know if any question.

Best
Zoe