1. Malek Qandil Dec 3, 2019Dec 3 at 2:21pm Manage Discussion Entry I chose the organization called QWEST CORP and the competitor was AT&T INC.  Comparing Qwest with it's competitor it did not look like it was doing to well. Their Debt/Equity Ratio was .59, when At&t was .84.  In this metric, it seems to be better performing because it has less debt to equity and at&t has more debt.  At the same time the current ratio is being beaten by at&t. Qwest at a .98 and at&t was at a .74. Qwest is a really small organization and it looks like they are still growing in business. Honestly, I never even knew an organization called qwest existed in the telecom industry until today. Which is pretty weird for me, since I know all about the telecom industry since it is a field that I typically deal with. It seems like it still has a lot of work to do in order to get where they want to .  Qwest has a lot of learning to do and a lot development that they need to put into their network. They need to figure out a strategy that can get them to an equal playing field as At&t or their other competitor Verizon. 2.Carrie Register Dec 8, 2019Dec 8 at 8:37pm Manage Discussion Entry The two companies I chose are Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.  Both companies are of the Aerospace and Defense industry.  The analysts for MSN Money determined that both company's stock are considered a "buy" option (MSNMoney, 2019).  I utilized the debt to equity ratio for financial condition and the return on equity ratio for management effectiveness.   Debt to equity ratio measures the proportion of capital provided by creditors (Byrd, Hickman, & McPherson, 2013).  The higher the ratio, typically greater than 2.00, the riskier the scenario for the investor in the company as it can mean that a company may have a difficult time paying back its creditors when a debt to equity ratio is high (Kenton & Hayes, 2019).  Raytheon's debt to equity ratio is 0.33 and Lockheed Martin's is 3.25.  The industry the companies are in could impact whether or not it is normal for a company to have a higher debt to equity ratio, however, based on the two companies I compared, Raytheon is in a better position in this area.   "Return on equity measures the profits accruing to shareholders per dollars of contributed equity" (Byrd, Hickman, & McPherson, 2013).  This ratio can help investors see if they are getting a good return for their money.  When looking at ROE, one would assume that Lockheed Martin is winning in this area vs. Raytheon.  Raytheon's ROE is 27.00, Lockheed Martin's is 245.74, and the industry average is 24.31.  Based on these numbers alone, Raytheon is doing well as compared to the industry, however, it is lagging behind Lockheed Martin.  However, sometimes ROE can be artificially influenced with higher debt financing, or share repurchases (CFI, 2019).  One would need to dig deeper to determine what is influencing both company's ROE and ensure each company is a good risk as an investment.   3.Malek ...

1. 1. Malek Qandil
Dec 3, 2019Dec 3 at 2:21pm
Manage Discussion Entry
I chose the organization called QWEST CORP and the
competitor was AT&T INC. Comparing Qwest with it's
competitor it did not look like it was doing to well. Their
Debt/Equity Ratio was .59, when At&t was .84. In this metric,
it seems to be better performing because it has less debt to
equity and at&t has more debt. At the same time the current
ratio is being beaten by at&t. Qwest at a .98 and at&t was at a
.74. Qwest is a really small organization and it looks like they
are still growing in business. Honestly, I never even knew an
organization called qwest existed in the telecom industry until
today. Which is pretty weird for me, since I know all about the
telecom industry since it is a field that I typically deal with. It
seems like it still has a lot of work to do in order to get where
they want to . Qwest has a lot of learning to do and a lot
development that they need to put into their network. They need
to figure out a strategy that can get them to an equal playing
field as At&t or their other competitor Verizon.
2.Carrie Register
Dec 8, 2019Dec 8 at 8:37pm
Manage Discussion Entry
The two companies I chose are Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
Both companies are of the Aerospace and Defense industry.
The analysts for MSN Money determined that both company's
stock are considered a "buy" option (MSNMoney, 2019). I
utilized the debt to equity ratio for financial condition and the
return on equity ratio for management effectiveness.
Debt to equity ratio measures the proportion of capital provided
by creditors (Byrd, Hickman, & McPherson, 2013). The higher
the ratio, typically greater than 2.00, the riskier the scenario for
the investor in the company as it can mean that a company may
have a difficult time paying back its creditors when a debt to

2. equity ratio is high (Kenton & Hayes, 2019). Raytheon's debt to
equity ratio is 0.33 and Lockheed Martin's is 3.25. The industry
the companies are in could impact whether or not it is normal
for a company to have a higher debt to equity ratio, however,
based on the two companies I compared, Raytheon is in a better
position in this area.
"Return on equity measures the profits accruing to shareholders
per dollars of contributed equity" (Byrd, Hickman, &
McPherson, 2013). This ratio can help investors see if they are
getting a good return for their money. When looking at ROE,
one would assume that Lockheed Martin is winning in this area
vs. Raytheon. Raytheon's ROE is 27.00, Lockheed Martin's is
245.74, and the industry average is 24.31. Based on these
numbers alone, Raytheon is doing well as compared to the
industry, however, it is lagging behind Lockheed Martin.
However, sometimes ROE can be artificially influenced with
higher debt financing, or share repurchases (CFI, 2019). One
would need to dig deeper to determine what is influencing both
company's ROE and ensure each company is a good risk as an
investment.
3.Malek Qandil
Dec 3, 2019Dec 3 at 10:28am
Manage Discussion Entry
"As pointed out earlier, the endless possibilities make an exhaus
tive study of ratio analysis impossible." (Byrd, 2013, 11.3)
Ratio analysis has many different possibilities which can be
difficult to understand which goes to which for the future. Since
the future is unpredictable ratio analysis is faced with some
tough critics. As much as one tries to calculate for the future.
The future is never guaranteed so one must try to prepare, but
one may never know what happens. Another thing that ratio
analysis may not account for is inflation in the market. With
inflation, it is pretty hard to predict what is coming because
prices rise and inflation may just happen. That is also
unpredictable. The same way demand may rise or may fall
depending on the trend. Some things may rise and something

3. may fall. Ratio analysis is defiantly helpful to be able to
prepare for the future and for things to come, but I would not
put my heart and soul into it because the future is so
unpredictable. As an organization we must prepare for the worst
and continue to pivot as needed. We cannot put all of our eggs
into ratio analysis or else we will fail. I calculated liquidity,
profitability and an efficiency ratio for TMUS. For liquidity, i
used the current ratio which is assets over liabilities and got an
answer of .81. For a profitability ratio i used the net profit
margin which uses net income over revenue and got an answer
of .067. Lastly, for efficiency ratio i used the assets turn over
which is revenue over total assets. Which i got an answer of
.598.
4.Samantha Huebscher
TuesdayDec 10 at 2:57pm
Manage Discussion Entry
Some pitfalls of using financial ratios to determine a company’s
financial health may be the lack of comparability between
companies, no indication for the cause of changes, and the fact
that financial ratios are based on book value (Mohr, 2017). We
often compare financial ratios to the industry averages to
determine the financial success or stability of a company.
However, the industry average can be swayed by companies
who are not performing so well. By comparing financial ratios
to companies that are not performing and those that are, a
company can analyze their financial health based on real
comparisons. When a financial ratio changes drastically from
one year to the next, it only shows the numerical change and
does not display the reason for this change. A ratio change
could be the cause of something as minor as employee
inexperience within the company to reports of consumer
dissatisfaction among products that the company is producing.
Without understanding the cause of ratio changes, it is difficult
to understand the future and financial health of an organization.
In addition to these existing pitfalls, financial ratios are also

4. based on book value, which is based on historical data and does
not reflect the real-time value of the company. For example,
assets lose value and new ones may be purchased through out
the year. So, while financial ratios are a good guide to
understanding the financial health of an organization, they do
not tell the full story.
Mohr, A. (2017, November 21). What Are Some of the Problems
Associated With Using Financial Ratios? Chron. Retrieved from
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/problems-associated-using-
financial-ratios-3979.html.
Unit 1 [BU224 Assignment Template]
Unit 1 Assignment: Opportunity Costs
Name:
Course Number and Section:
Date:
General Instructions for all Assignments:
1. Unless specified differently by your course instructor, save
this assignment template to your computer with the following
file naming format:
Course number_section number_last name_first name_unit
number
2. At the top of the template, insert the appropriate
information:
Your name, course number and section, and the date
3. Insert your answers below, or in the appropriate space
provided for in the question. Your answers should follow APA
6th edition format with citations to your sources and, at the
bottom of your last page, a list of references. Your answers
should also be in Standard English with correct spelling,
punctuation, grammar, and style double-spaced, in Times New
Roman, in 12–point, and black font). Respond to questions in a

5. thorough manner, providing specific examples of concepts,
topics, definitions, and other elements asked for in the
questions.
4. Upload the completed Assignment to the appropriate
Dropbox.
5. Any questions about the Assignment, or format questions,
should be directed to your course instructor.
Assignment:
In this Assignment, you will demonstrate your understanding of
certain economic principles that underlie virtually all decisions
that people make. Specifically, the concept of Opportunity
Costs by selecting the correct underlying principle and
explaining in a series of logical steps which would likely
produce the results described.
Questions
1. Howard needs to buy a laptop computer to start online
university courses. The price at the local computer store is
$650. The identical computer is available at one online site for
$605 and another site, for $622. All prices include the
appropriate sales tax. The accompanying table indicates the
typical shipping and handling charges for the computer ordered
online.
Shipping method
Delivery time
Charge
Standard shipping
3–7 days
$13.99
Second–day air
2 business days
$18.98

6. Next–day air
1 business day
$23.98
a. Define “opportunity cost” in economic terms. (3 points)
b. In this situation, what are the opportunity costs of Howard
choosing to buy online instead of at the local computer store?
Note that if you buy the computer online, you must wait to get
it. (4 points)
c. List all the possible choices for Howard, including their
relevant differences in price and delivery time. (4 points)
d. What determines which of these choices Howard will choose?
(3 points)
2. During the improving economic conditions of 2015 and early
2016 much additional construction of homes and condos
throughout much of the U.S. took place. This provided a
significant increase in the income of workers in the construction
trades. Many of the construction workers were immigrants and
have family and relatives in other countries. Often these
workers would send part of their income to their less fortunate
relatives in their old country, especially in Mexico and some of
the South American countries.
a. Which of the economic principles best describes this
situation? (4 points)
b. Using the principle you have selected, describe the chain of
events that best explains how the increased money sent to
families in these South American countries will cycle through
the economy of that country and what overall affect it will have
within the economy. (5 points)
3. From June 2008 oil was at a high of $144.78 per barrel.

7. During the period from April 2011 until July of 2014, the price
of oil hovered between about $115.32 per barrel and about
$105.22 a barrel. Then, starting in August 2014 oil began a
precipitous fall in price from the $105.22 to $33.62 a barrel in
January 2016. Although the U.S. has great amounts of oil that
can be brought out of the ground by “fracking,” by the
beginning of 2016 many of the workers in the U.S. oil
exploration and drilling industry were out of work and
tremendous amounts of oil exploration equipment was sitting in
the equivalent of “used car lots” to be sold.
a. Which of the economic principles best describes this
situation? (4 points)
b. Using the principle you have selected, describe the chain of
links that best explains how the falling international oil prices
caused U. S. workers to be laid off and available U.S. oil to be
left in the ground. (5 points)
_________________
References:
Unit 1 Assignment: Opportunity Costs
Possible Points
Points Earned
Overall Writing:
8
Used correct file name in uploading assignment document.
1
Demonstrated concerted effort to utilize material from the
textbook and/or seminars to answer questions.

8. 3
Correctly formatted paper in APA 6th edition. Includes a
minimum of one cited and referenced academically credible
source.
3
Used standard English with few or no grammatical errors.
1
Individual Questions:
32
1.a. Correctly defined opportunity costs.
3
1.b. Correctly explained what were Howard’s opportunity costs.
4
1.c. Correctly listed ALL relevant choices.
4
1.d. Correctly listed logical concerns in making Howard's
decision.
3
2.a. Correctly determined the applicable economic principle.
4
2.b. Correctly listed the chain of events of the movement of
money in the South American economy.
5
3.a. Correctly determined the applicable economic principle.
4

9. 3.b. Correctly described the steps between the fall in oil prices
and laid off workers.
5
Less points deducted for late submission
Total Points
40
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