Ongoing Analysis Project (OAP)

The goal of this Ongoing Analysis Project (OAP) is to provide students with a practical understanding of financial performance analysis and valuation. The project will cover fundamental concepts of financial statement analysis, including analysis of financial ratios, forecasting techniques, and some valuation methodologies. You need to make comparison of basic financial ratios among competitors of your selected company, conduct valuation using the ROPI model, and make detailed footnote analysis. You are required to select two competitors and compare important ratios across firms. For the OAP report, students are required to form a group and choose one company from the company pool provided. The group will need to address similar questions assigned for the weekly homework, following the example of KHC, and submit the final complete group report for their chosen company. The final written report, along with supporting worksheets, is due by May 4th, 2025.

Project Details

For the OAP report, students are required to form a group and choose one company from the company pool provided. The group will need to address similar questions assigned for the weekly homework, following the example of KHC, and submit group report for their chosen company.

The group report is expected to address the questions listed in the OAP project file (which are similar to the homework questions but with a different company, in addition, there will be questions related to peer company comparisons). You can use the OAP Worksheet Template-Ratio Calculation.xlsx to calculate financial ratios. You can also refer to the OAP project grading rubrics and the sample report.

The objective of this project is to collect and analyze relevant information about your selected company. However, simply providing the answers to the questions every week is not enough. You are expected to organize the information in a logical and coherent manner, and draw conclusions based on your analysis. The final output should be a well-structured report that demonstrates your understanding of the company's operations and performance, rather than a simple list of answers to the questions. This project should be approached as a professional exercise, not just as homework.

The following six companies are included in the company list, the firm's 10-K is attached after the firm's name and ticker symbol:

General Mills (GIS) GENERAL MILLS INC.xlsx
Mondelez (MDLZ) MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL, INC.xlsx
Hershey(HSY) HERSHEY CO.xlsx
Kellanova(Kellogg) (K) KELLANOVA.xlsx
Campbell Soup (CPB) CAMPBELL SOUP CO.xlsx
Simply Good Foods(SMPL) SIMPLY GOOD FOODS CO.xlsx

All companies are selected from the package food industry and have similar business line.

- 10K Filing Summary

Collaborating with Group Members

If you choose to meet outside of class, I suggest discussing with your group how and when you are going to work together. There are three main things to consider: (1) how and when are you going to communicate as a group? (2) what role and/or responsibilities will each group member have? (3) how are you going to collaborate on the presentation - what tool(s) will you use?

Homework Presentations:

students are expected to present how to apply Artificial Intelligence to related homework questions in class. There are five function areas of AI application in your homework (1. Data Extraction, 2. Computation & Modeling, 3. Analysis & Visualization, 4. Comprehension & Interpretation, 5. Results Comparison & Validation). Each week, we will assign one functional area to each group. Groups will take turns presenting different functional areas in different weeks. Within each group, one student (or a volunteer) will be responsible for delivering the presentation. Each group will have 5 minutes to present. However, all group members are expected to participate and assist in answering questions during the presentation. Every student must present at least once before the course concludes.

Five Major Functions of AI with Relevant Homework Questions: AI Function Question.pdf

2025/04/21 Version: Updated-AI Function Question Summary.pdf