21 Apr Financial Ratios for Visa and MasterCard
Order Instructions
The objective of the financial analysis research project are to enable you to prepare and produce a comprehensive financial analysis of two publicly-traded corporation. Using the two companies (Visa and Mastercard) you will work as a team to compare these two competitors and provide a critical analysis of these two corporations financial ratios to make recommendations regarding investing in either of these companies.
First, calculate the required financial ratios for each company (Visa and MasterCard) using their annual data from 2017 – 2019, and present in MS Excel.
Second, you will write a financial analysis report that utilizes your financial ratios and supported with written analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of the data. Your analysis should be focused on the main theme:
Would you invest your financial capital in either firm as a shareholder?
1. Excel Financial Ratios
You will prepare an Excel document which provides the calculations for the ratios required for the project for the past three years. The Excel document should clearly identify each company and their specific ratio calculations.
For this project you will prepare financial ratios in MS Excel using the accounting statements provided. You must provide the calculations for the ratios over a three year period (2017, 2018, 2019) for each company using the annual data. Calculations must be performed and submitted in an MS Excel spreadsheet for each.
Profitability Ratios
Gross Margin
Operating Margin
Net Profit Margin
Liquidity Ratios
Current Ratio
Cash Ratio
Leverage Ratios
Debt to Equity
Operating Returns
ROE
ROA
2. Written Analysis
You will submit a written analysis of your findings. This final analysis should be written as a professional stock analysis of these two competitors and utilize supporting evidence in your analysis (citations and references). The final written analysis must follow APA formatting and should be no more than 15 pages (including charts and references). The analysis should include:
Analysis of the two businesses and a discussion of the payments industry, including but not limited to, strengths of these businesses, opportunities moving forward, potential threats to their business models.
Critical analysis of each of the main ratio calculations related to each company. This critical analysis should include the calculations, results, an explanation of the importance of the ratio, and an analysis of which company has an advantage based upon the calculations. This analysis should include graphs and figures to supplement your written analysis.
Clear conclusion which summarizes the advantages and disadvantages for each company, with an ultimate answer related to which company you would choose to invest using clear and convincing reasoning.
