Analyzing the Financial Statements of the World’s Retailer

The Wal-Mart guinea pig is intended for an introductory or main course on pecuniary Statement Analysis. It may also be useful within a corporal Finance/Financial Management course. afterward a class on fiscal statements and liquidity, profitability and solvency ratios and some brief examples discussed by the proofreader students should be capable of fashioning a financial analysis of Wal-Mart. Students bear be asked to make this analysis in class, or to prepare the case distant the classroom, and to present it.Ideally, the case work is conducted in groups of 4 to 6 students, and it typically takes amid 1 to 1. 5 hours (for the analysis itself obviously, write a written report or presentation is more time consuming). The Wal-Mart case is aimed at both under ammonia alum and graduate students, and for general management programmes/MBAs as intimately as finance students obviously, for the latter group, a much more fine-grained analysis, large discussion and adequate lin king among various financials and between the numbers and Wal-Marts business is required.Evidently, the lecturer should highlight many more expound in a class of finance students. In the teaching note, the authors first give a detailed discussion of Wal-Marts balance sheet, profit and loss bankers bill and cash flow statement, mainly ground upon common base and common coat analysis. While the focus is on 2009 figures, conclusions for 2008 would be broadly similar.Furthermore, they also provide an overview of some key financials evolution over the one-time(prenominal) 10 years. Next, they calculate and interpret liquidity, profitability and solvency ratios for 2008 and 2009 and link these to Wal-Marts business beat and operating activities. They summarize the main findings in a concluding section. Finally, the authors include a slide show that can be used while teaching this case.