You have an interview for a job as a paid intern in the Finance Department of one of the following publicly traded firms (choose one: Apple, Amazon, or Tesla). You have been tasked with creating a PowerPoint presentation (including speaker notes; 10 slides at minimum) on the firm and its financials for the interview. Use Yahoo Finance or Macrotrends.net to obtain the information.
You must address the following key topics in the presentation:
- List the financial statements and discuss how the statements are linked to the basic accounting equation.
- Re-trace the statements back to the accounting equation.
- Discuss the accounting methods used in the firm.
- How are they used within the firm and to what extent?
- Compare the last 2-3 years of financials and analyze the results.
- What areas stand out as significant in terms of losses, gains, and risk?
- Do you see any major shifts or trends in the financials year-to-year?
- If so, in what areas and by what amount? What does the profitability and the liquidity of the firm reflect?
- Was the company efficiently using its cash flow?
- How effectively did the firm leverage its debt? Is the firm too overly burdened with debt, or is it managing the debt responsibly?
- Based on your findings, in what areas could the firm improve its position?
- Does the firm’s future performance look bleak or positive based on your analysis?
- Include a conclusion slide and discuss two things you learned from this analysis. What parts of this analysis surprised you?
