Stock Symbol : IBM Company Name: IBM Corp Payout Policy – Dividends and Stock Repurchases Describe the payout policy of the firm over time. Why the firm chooses one kind of distribution rather than the other, or both? Any trend is found in the firm’s distributions. (e.g. some firm is increasing the use of repurchase and decreasing dividends.) If the firm pays dividends, make sure to address the following issues: § Describe the history of dividend payouts and firm’s dividend policy. § Market reaction to the firm’s dividend initiation. § Market reaction to significant changes in dividend amounts, e.g. large dividend increase, dividend cut and dividend omission. § Describe special dividends or stock dividends if have. For share repurchase, make sure to address the following issues: § Describe why the firm repurchase stocks § The method of buying back stocks § Stock market reaction to share repurchase Also you need to address if 2003 dividend tax cut affect the firm’s payout policy by comparing firm’s payout before and after the tax cut. Project Report Requirements: A formal report is required for the project. You are assumed to be asked by your manager to analyze a company. So your report should be a formal business report to your manager. Several issues should be noted. First, you should report the results of your analysis and your conclusion/suggestion based on your analysis in the paper. The process and steps of your computation/analysis should not be presented in the context, but can be put in the appendix. Second, your manager is assumed to have finance background, there is no need to explain the definition of financial terms. Third, the paper should be organized as the sample report. Don’t make it just as a list of answers to each asked questions. The report should be written in formal English and typed in Microsoft Word. Please single-space the text of the report, and use a legible font like Times New Roman. The font size should be 12 pt. The suggested format of the report is illustrated in the sample report. You should put the grading rubric as the front page of your report. You should put your tables, calculations in the appendix. There is no specified length of the report. But to give you an idea, I think 3-5 pages of text (excluding cover page and appendix) would be appropriate. You should avoid plagiarism. You should not directly copy sentences from the internet. You should rephrase using your own word or use quotation mark. Guide Line: Finance 5103 – Financial Management Project Data Collection 1- Pick a to follow for this project 2- Go to finance.yahoo.com and find the stock ticker symbol (ticker symbol is a unique ID for stocks. No stock can have the same ticker at the same time). Hint: You can use the “ >>Symbol Lookup ” link on the webpage. 3- Once you get the ticker symbol, access the main page for your stock. Hint: You can access the main page of your stock by typing the ticker symbol in the text box at t.

1. Stock Symbol : IBM
Company Name: IBM Corp
Payout Policy – Dividends and Stock Repurchases
Describe the payout policy of the firm over time. Why the firm
chooses one kind of distribution rather than the other, or both?
Any trend is found in the firm’s distributions. (e.g. some firm is
increasing the use of repurchase and decreasing dividends.)
If the firm pays dividends, make sure to address the following
issues:
§
Describe the history of dividend payouts and firm’s dividend
policy.
§
Market reaction to the firm’s dividend initiation.
§
Market reaction to significant changes in dividend amounts, e.g.
large dividend increase, dividend cut and dividend omission.
§
Describe special dividends or stock dividends if have.
For share repurchase, make sure to address the following issues:
§
Describe why the firm repurchase stocks
§
The method of buying back stocks
§

2. Stock market reaction to share repurchase
Also you need to address if 2003 dividend tax cut affect the
firm’s payout policy by comparing firm’s payout before and
after the tax cut.
Project Report Requirements:
A formal report is required for the project. You are assumed to
be asked by your manager to analyze a company. So your report
should be a formal business report to your manager. Several
issues should be noted. First, you should report the results of
your analysis and your conclusion/suggestion based on your
analysis in the paper. The process and steps of your
computation/analysis should not be presented in the context, but
can be put in the appendix. Second, your manager is assumed to
have finance background, there is no need to explain the
definition of financial terms. Third, the paper should be
organized as the sample report. Don’t make it just as a list of
answers to each asked questions.
The report should be written in formal English and typed in
Microsoft Word. Please single-space the text of the report, and
use a legible font like Times New Roman. The font size should
be 12 pt. The suggested format of the report is illustrated in the
sample report. You should put the grading rubric as the front
page of your report. You should put your tables, calculations in
the appendix. There is no specified length of the report. But to
give you an idea, I think 3-5 pages of text (excluding cover
page and appendix) would be appropriate.
You should avoid plagiarism. You should not directly copy
sentences from the internet. You should rephrase using your
own word or use quotation mark.
Guide Line:

3. Finance 5103 – Financial Management
Project
Data Collection
1-
Pick a to follow for this project
2-
Go to finance.yahoo.com and find the stock ticker symbol
(ticker symbol is a unique ID for stocks. No stock can have the
same ticker at the same time).
Hint: You can use the
“
>>Symbol Lookup
” link on the webpage.
3-
Once you get the ticker symbol, access the main page for your
stock.
Hint: You can access the main page of your stock by typing the
ticker symbol in the text box at the left of the “Get quotes”
button. Once you type the ticker symbol, click on “Get quotes”
button to access the main page of your stock.
Part I: Company Profile
1-
Click on the “Profile” link to get the company profile.
Write an introduction to the company you are following. Use
the information you find above and from the company’s

4. website. To avoid plagiarism, you should not copy directly the
materials online. Some quotation is allowed but should be used
to a minimum extent. The introduction should not be longer
than one page.
Part II: Financial Analysis
1-
Click on the “Key Statistics” link to obtain company key
financial statistics.
2-
Click on the “Competitors” link to learn the firm’s competitors
3-
Click on the “Income Statement” link to obtain annual data of
the latest two years.
4-
Click on the “Balance Sheet” link to obtain annual data of the
latest two years.
5-
Click on the “Cash Flow” link to obtain annual data of the latest
two years.
Based on the above financial statements, conduct ratio analysis
(refer to chapter 3) and compare ratios of two years. Report
your analysis, conclusion and suggestions on what needs
improvement.
Part III: Stock Analysis
Click on the “Historical Prices” link on the left

5. a.
Retrieve the
monthly
last day adjusted closing stock price from
Dec 2009 to Dec 2014
. Download the data to Excel.
b.
Retrieve the
monthly last day
adjusted closing price for S&P 500 index (^GSPC) during the
same time period. Download the data to Excel.
c.
Compute the average monthly return, standard deviation and
beta of the company stock.
d.
Compare your beta with the beta shown on “Key Statistics”. If
there is difference, explain possible reasons.
e.
What does the beta tell you about the risk of the firm?
Click on the “Analyst Estimates” link.
What is the analysts’ growth estimate of the firm for the next
five years? Is this growth rate sustainable?
Use analyst estimates information to compute the fundamental
value of the company’s stock and then compare your estimate
with the current market value. You can use constant growth
model or nonconstant growth model. You should explain why
you choose a specific model. For constant growth rate, you can
use the growth estimate of earning for the next five years.
(Refer to chapter 7)

6. Click on the “Analyst Opinion” link.
What is the mean recommendation score for this week? Are
analysts recommending buying or selling the stock? Is the buy
or sell recommendation strong or weak?
Check the upgrades and downgrades history. Is the most recent
change in analyst recommendation an upgrade or a downgrade?
Please write a report on the company’s stock performance and
your estimation of its fundamental value. You should include at
least answers to the above questions.
Part IV: Corporate Governance
1. Click on the “Profile” link.
a.
What is the Quick Score of your company? What is this figure
telling you about the corporate governance of your company?
b.
Who is the CEO of your company? What is the CEO
compensation plan? (You may need to use other internet
resources such as company website or Google to find out the
complete compensation plan.)
2. Click on the “Major Holders” link.
a.
What is the percent of shares held by insiders and 5% owners?
b.
What is the percent of shares held by institutional and mutual
fund owners? What is the number of institutions holding shares?
Please write a report on the company’s corporate governance.

7. You should include at least answers to the above questions.