Financial Analysis and Valuation

This unit develops core skills for evaluating firm performance and valuing cash flows, securities, and capital structure choices. Students learn to read and use financial statements and ratios, apply time value of money to pricing bonds and investments, and compare market instruments and debt/equity tradeoffs while considering inflation, exchange rates, and investor communication.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze income statements and common-size comparisons to compute and interpret liquidity, profitability, efficiency, and solvency metrics for business performance assessment
• Apply time value of money techniques to calculate present and future values, discount cash flows, net present value, and bond pricing
• Demonstrate evaluation of capital structure and debt health by comparing bond rates, leverage measures, hybrid instruments, and choices between debt and equity financing
• Compare market instruments and trading mechanics by interpreting bond information, order types, basic option features, and the effects of inflation and exchange rates on returns and investor messaging