Archive for category: Business paper

Resources: 1. President Lyndon Johnson gave a fascinating commencement address at my alma mater Howard University in 1965. In this speech, he outlined support for affirmative action. Please read the speech in its entirety: Commencement Address at Howard University: “To Fulfill These Rights.” Here is the link of the speech: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/commencement-address-at-howard-university-to-fulfill-these-rights/ 2. Reskin, who chaired the Sociology Department at Ohio State University from 1993 to 1995, was named a professor of sociology at Harvard last September. Reskin is recognized as the foremost authority on the subject of gender and the workplace. She has written five books, including Women and Men at Work in 1994. Her recent work, however, has branched into the overlap of gender with race and ethnicity. This week I have attached Chapter 5 from her book, “The Effect of Affirmative Action on Other Stakeholders.” (see attachment ) 3.Also watch this brief clip on affirmative action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B17OINF_SI DO NOT use any outside resources, make sure you use these three resources to support your answer Paper question:. Is affirmative action still relevant in today’s work environment?

Read ‘Corporate Finance,’ Berk and DeMarzo, Chapter 12; Review relevant class notes. Working individually, answer the questions below. Fill the shaded blank cells in the accompanying Excel template spreadsheet. Be sure to perform calculations by using formulas that refer to the collected data in the same file. Upload the Excel file with your work to Canvas. Our goals: You work in Nordstrom Inc.’s (NYSE: JWN) corporate finance and treasury department and have just been assigned to the team estimating Nordstrom’s WACC. You must estimate the company’s WACC in preparation for a team meeting in one week. You quickly realize that the information you need is readily available online. 1. Cost of debt (20 points) a) Before-taxcostofdebt To get the firm’s before-tax cost of debt, you will need the yield to maturity on its existing long-term bonds. Go to finra-markets.morningstar.com. Under “Market Data,” select “Bonds.” Under “Search,” click “Corporate,” and type the company’s name. A list of the firm’s outstanding bond issues will appear. Bond issues may be listed on multiple pages. Assume that the firm’s policy is to use the expected return on its noncallable long-term obligations as its cost of debt. Find the noncallable bond issue with the longest time to maturity and non-missing reported yield. (Yields to maturity are reported in the last column titled “Yield.” Make sure the issue you choose doesn’t have “Yes” in the column titled “Callable.”) Collect the yield and maturity date for your chosen bond issue. b) Corporatetaxrate Go to finance.yahoo.com. In the search box, type the company’s ticker symbol and press enter. Then click “Financials” and select “Income Statement.” Collect the firm’s income tax expense and income before tax. Calculate the firm’s effective tax rate by dividing the income tax expense by the income before tax. c) After-tax cost of debt Using the firm’s tax rate, calculate its after-tax cost of debt. 2. Market value of debt (20 points) To get the firm’s market value of its existing long-term debt, you will need the market value (that is, dollar amount outstanding) of each bond issue. Read: Prepare: We will practice estimating the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) for an actual firm using the concepts and techniques introduced in the course. Page 1 of 2 FINC 3420 – Intermediate Corporate Finance Prof. Katya Emm a) Marketvalueofeachbondissue Returning to the web page that lists the firm’s outstanding bond issues. To get the market value of each bond issue, click on the issuer name in the first row. This brings up a web page with all of the information about the bond issue. Scroll down until you find “Amount Outstanding” on the right side. Note that this amount is quoted in thousands of dollars (e.g., $50,000 means $50,000,000, i.e., $50 million). Collect the amount outstanding of each bond issue and record it along with the corresponding maturity date in the second worksheet of your Excel file. Do so for each issue. b) Marketvalueofdebt Calculate the total amount outstanding of all the bond issues. This is the market value of the firm’s long-term debt. 3. Cost of equity (20 points) a) Risk-freerate Go to federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/. In the “Instruments” column, you will find the yield to maturity for ten-year Treasury bonds listed as “10-year Treasury constant maturity, nominal.” Collect this yield as your risk-free rate and indicate the corresponding date for that yield. b) Beta Go to finance.yahoo.com. In the search box, type the company’s ticker symbol and press enter. Once you see the basic information for the firm, find and click “Statistics.” From the statistics, collect the firm’s Beta. c) Cost of equity Calculate the firm’s cost of equity using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the risk-free rate, Beta, and a market risk premium of 6%. 4. Market value of equity (10 points) Go to finance.yahoo.com. In the search box, type the company’s ticker symbol and press enter. Click “Statistics.” From the statistics, collect the firm’s share price and shares outstanding. Calculate the firm’s market value of equity (i.e., market capitalization) by multiplying the share price by the number of shares outstanding. 5. Market-value weights of equity and debt (10 points) Compute the weights for the firm’s equity and debt based on the market value of debt, obtained in step 2, and market value of equity, obtained in step 4. 6. WACC (20 points) Calculate the firm’s WACC using its cost of debt and cost of equity weighted by their corresponding market-value weights. Note that the firm does not have preferred stock in its capital structure.

You’ve been hired to manage the employee communications program for Big Data Corp (BDC).

Headquartered on Toronto, BDC has factories and regional offices in BC, Ontario, Quebec & Nova Scotia. At a meeting this morning with the President & the VP of Human Resources you discussed the fast, dynamic world of traditional & social media where issues that bloom overnight affect the workplace. “Are you aware of any external issues we need to pay attention to?” asked the President. “Is there anything that could force us to change our workplace policies?” You started to ponder how attitudes & thinking about diversity, changing social dynamics about gender relationships, and the desire for more transparent decision making, among other issues, are affecting morale & attitudes of BDC employees.

As though he was reading your mind, the President turned to you and asked, “So what do you think we should do?” You suggest some formal research might be in order, but he brushes the suggestion off. “Not yet!” he says. “I’d like the both of you to think about this. I want each of you to prepare a position paper on what issues you think will adversely impact morale and dynamics within the company if we fail to recognize and deal with them.” You agree to meet in a week. Write an 800-word analysis of what you believe are the top three contemporary workplace issues that could compromise BDC’s reputation with employees, and how you think the company should communicate about them internally.

The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the Timmons Model around the notion – how can aspiring entrepreneurs and their investors increase the odds of success?

Examine the Timmons Model and Illustrate your view with an example showing the application of the Timmons Model. Use Jones Lang LaSalle as an example or another company (do not use Google as an example). You may find it of value to consider various exhibits in your discussions for instance: • Exhibit 3.5 (p83): The Entrepreneurial Process is Opportunity Driven, • Exhibit 3.6 (p. 84): Understand and Marshall resources do not be driven by them,

• Exhibit 3.7 (p.84) An Entrepreneurial Team is a Critical Ingredient for Success and • Exhibits 3.8 a, b, c (p. 85-86) Google Resource Base Parsimony, Bootstrapping – journey. Requirements Consider the high failure rates of businesses and how can aspiring entrepreneurs and their investors increase the odds of success. Is the Timmons Model useful? Develop a comment on the Timmons Model and provide an example (from your own company or another company – NOT Google) that supports your viewpoint or comment. The comment and example should be approximately 275 words in length. You may include a diagram to illustrate your point. Any diagram should be referred to and discussed so that the viewer understands what to look at, the diagram itself is NOT included in the word count.

In the short article “Royal Dutch Shell Finally Delivers Big Stock Buyback, But Shares Break Support” by Aparna Narayanan (see below), stock repurchases may produce favorable effects on key financial ratios. Narayanan, A. (2018, July 26). Royal Dutch Shell finally delivers big stock buyback, but shares break support. Investors Business Daily. Retrieved from https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=131003207&site=ehost-live&scope=site After reading the article, write an essay that addresses the prompts below. Include an introduction that summarizes the article. Analyze the importance of stable dividend policies. Determine reasons behind stock repurchases. Analyze how individual financial metrics are specifically affected by stock repurchase plans and returns. Your essay should be at least two pages in length, not counting the title and reference pages. You are required to cite and reference at least your textbook and the article. Use APA format to cite in-text and reference citations.