Question

Financial statements of Target are available at: http://www.annualreports.com/Company/target-corp

I. Conceptual Framework: For this part of the assessment, you will prepare a financial analysis paper addressing various topics about Target Corporation, supporting your answers and claims with quantitative data where applicable. You will need to research Target Corporation and obtain its latest audited financial statements (information that is available to the public online) in order to answer the following:

A. Explain how the conceptual framework and accounting standards apply to Target Corporation.

B. Analyze the information within the disclosure statements for information that would interest the creditors of Target Corporation.

i. What information would be important for someone in this role?

ii. Why would this information be important to them?

C. Analyze the information within the disclosure statements for information that would interest the investors of Target Corporation.

i. What information would be important for someone in this role?

ii. Why would this information be important to them?

V. Financial Analysis: For this part of the assessment, you will prepare spreadsheets and analysis to be included in your financial analysis paper.

A. Prepare an Excel spreadsheet to compare financial ratios for Target Corporation to the industry averages.

B. Compose a summation as to how Target Corporation is performing in relation to its competitors. Be sure to base your answer on the spreadsheet you previously prepared.

VII. Financial Report: For this part of the assessment, you will prepare a financial report in response to a hypothetical scenario: A major global disaster (in this case an oil spill) has caused environmental damage and has affected global transportation as well. As the controller of Target Corporation, you are tasked with providing a financial report to the board of directors addressing how this event will affect your company.

A. Analyze the effects of the global disaster on the financial statements of Target Corporation using the financial information from Target Corporation.

B. Recommend strategies to address the effects of the disaster on Target Corporation based on your analysis.

When answering the questions, consider the following:

When discussing the framework consider the objectives of financial reporting and qualitative characteristics of useful financial information.

Disclosures are located in the notes to the financial statements. Consider liquidity, solvency, and profitability when deciding on what information creditors and investors would focus on in making their financial decisions.

The financial ratios that are compared to competitors should be presented in Excel. You will want to calculate these ratios. In the summation that should be located in your paper you will want to present your findings and provide insight into how Target Corporation is performing in comparison. Make sure you refer to the Excel Spreadsheet in your summation.

Focus on how the disaster will affect Target Corporation, specifically related to increases in costs of operations and possible rising prices from vendors for shipping and products. How will this affect Target Corporation's bottom line? Could there be an impact to cost of goods sold? What about increases in shipping? Will you need to raise prices? Could these cause inventory shortages? How will this affect sales and your customer base? When considering strategies, what can be done to offset these impacts? How could you avoid the impact of rising transportation costs in products and shipping, along with possible delays in merchandise shipments due to this disaster?

Answer 1

A) Conceptual framework identifies and defines the qualitative characteristics of financial statement. The framework is about principles, rules of recognition and measurement of the type of information which has to be displayed in the financial statement The company I have chosen has followed GAAP Accounting standards for presenting the information in the financial statement. The financial statement should reflect the reliability, relevance and material information about the company. B) The creditors of the company will be benefited by the financial information of the company like debt equity ratio, sales turnover ratio, cash flow statement, net profit ratio etc. which is disclosed in the disclosure statement for information. The quality of assets, the ratio of sales turnover ratio shows the time at which the inventory can be sold by the company. Provision for bad and doubtful debts on accounts receivables, debt equity ratio shows the proportion of debt on equity. The company having low debt equity ratio can takee more loans but the company having high debt equity ratio means the company will be in risk if it takes more loans The ratio of interest covers profit before interest and tax. The profitability ratio like gross profit ratio and net profit ratio shows the profits of the company to repay back the loans.

On the basis of all these information the creditor can be able to assess the risk of giving loans to the company and judge whether the loan can be given to the company or not. he information regarding profitability of th company, sales, dividend payout ratio, inventory turnover ratio, debt equity ratio are the ratios which are important for investors of the company The profitability ratio shows the growth of the company, the sales ratio shows the liquidity of the company. When the company is in growing condition the investor will also be benefited with that. Debt equity ratio shows the ratio of debt over equity means the liability of the company which is important for the investors to judge the financial condition of the company