Posted: April 20th, 2021
FIN 424 Conducting security analysis of a publicly listed company
ZAYED UNIVERSITY
FIN 424
INVESTMENTS
SPRING 2021
SEMESTER PROJECT
Project’s Objective: Conducting security analysis of a publicly listed company using data
retrieved from the Bloomberg terminal and writing a brief report summarizing your analysis.
Step 1. Complete the BMC certification courses & the “Terminal Basics” by the project due
date.
Step 2. Choose a company a company whose stocks are publicly available on either Abu Dhabi
(ADX) or Dubai Stock Exchange Market (DFM).
I suggest you to check these links:
https://www.dfm.ae/issuers/listed-securities/securities
https://www.adx.ae/english/pages/marketparticipants/issuers/issuers-directory.aspx
You can also find the same information using the Bloomberg terminal.
Please fill in your choice at the following excel sheet until March 25, 2021, so that I can approve
it before commencing the analysis. Please enter only student IDs, not names in the file.
Deadline: March 25, 2020
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ehpBlZZc9i65D5D5Cv9JO3NFo25G_xziqLufgI7pBo/edit?usp=sharing
Before you enter your choice, please check if any other group has chosen the same company.
Each group must work with the data of a different company. If two or more groups choose the
same company, I will assign that company to the one who entered the company of their choice
to the excel sheet the earliest (first come, first serve) and I will ask the others to choose another
company. IMPORTANT: If you haven’t entered your company of choice at the excel sheet and
worked with the data of any company you like, you will automatically get a ZERO! This step is
essential and compulsory!
Step 3. Attend the training session with the Bloomberg lab coordinator. The details of the
session is below (dates are also announced on Blackboard):
• Tuesday March 23rd:10:00 am -11:00 am
Step 4. Start working on your report. The report should include the following:
1- Title Page (including the member names& IDs & the company of choice)
2- Company Overview (general business description, the industry, when was the
company founded, which market it is trading at and mention if there is any key
recent news affecting the company’s stock for e.g. change in management,
introduction of new product line, merger and acquisition etc). All that information
should be available at Bloomberg. (Security Description function)
3- Find the following using the Bloomberg terminal:
-Daily price (for the past five years) and,
-Abu Dhabi General Index (ADI) & S&P 500 (for the past five years)
-Company’s beta (current and historical beta for the past five years)
a. Plot the daily price return, ADI return and S&P 500 return in a graph and comment
how the company is doing relative to the market. (while commenting here, try to
use the company’s beta. Tip: use your knowledge about the beta. For example; if the
beta is one, the stock moves with the market, so you will see similar trends in both
the stock and market movements)
b. Export the daily stock price data in an excel file and calculate the stock price
return, average return and the standard deviation (both by using the built-in
formulas in excel and by typing the formula on the formula bar). You will get more
explanations on that point. I will provide you an example.
4- Industry Overview (list the major competitors in the industry and a comparison with
the major competitor-compare Total assets, Total equity, Total debt, ROA and ROE
for the last 5 years)
5- Check the board composition for the last 15 years (or the latest available year) : size
of the board (how many members on the board), details about the board members
(their full names, age, gender, education, nationality). Comment on the diversity of
the board and the general changes on the board (inclusion of a female board
member or a younger board member etc.) Some of those information might not be
available for some board members, or for some years- like age, nationality,
education. In such a case, just note the missing data as N/A in your submission file.
6- Fundamental Analysis (for the past 5 years) :
a- Solvency analysis (debt to equity)
b- Profitability ratios (Net profit margin, ROA, ROE)
c- Valuation ratios (Price Earnings ratio , Market to Book ratio, dividend payout)
7- Graphs/charts for each ratio
8- Conclusion (how well is the company doing, what to expect for the future, would
you recommend investing in such company).
9- References (if any)
10- Appendix (The screenshots of the data retrieval process)
You are going to submit one excel file. Please organize your excel file by naming each
worksheet according to the outline given above.
Step 5. Submit your project on blackboard on or before April 23rd (before 6 p.m.). The
submissions will be closed after 6 p.m. on April 23rd . Please submit all the work as an excel
document.
RULES
ü You can work in groups of maximum 3 students. No more than 3 students can form a
group! Please make sure to allocate the work evenly across all group members, you are
one team, and will get one grade; if you have any “free riders” in the group, you need to
inform me as soon as possible- not the last week!
ü Each team needs to provide me with evidence that they retrieved the data from the
Bloomberg terminal, so you need to provide me with screen shots of the data
retrieved in the appendix of the report.
ü Needless to say, no report should be in any ways similar (INCLUDING THE
FORMATTING) to another student’s/group’s report. Any similarities will be considered
as academic dishonesty and a violation of ZU Honor Code. The assignments will be
scanned by “SafeAssign” and any indications of plagiarism will be taken seriously.
Students must be prepared to accept the appropriate sanctions for any dishonest
academic behavior. At the very minimum, your assignment will get a zero score.
ü You will use 5 years of annual data to compute the ratios (the most recent years (i.e.,
2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016).
ü Include any relevant graphs and charts to make your report interesting!
ü You need to attend the session with the Bloomberg lab coordinator. She will be
explaining you how to collect the necessary data. In case you have further questions,
she will be able to assist you. However, please don’t wait until the last day to collect the
data you need.
ü If you have any problems about logging in the Bloomberg anywhere, or finding the data,
you can contact the Bloomberg lab coordinator (Layal.Youssef@zu.ac.ae). I will be
explaining each step of the project in detail during the class and the class recordings will
be available to you. If you have any questions regarding the project, please send me an
email immediately (Perihan.iren@zu.ac.ae), so that assist you on time.
ü The due date for this assignment is April 23rd, no later than 6 p.m. There will be an
assignment folder on BB where all group members should upload their work. If you
don’t upload your assignment, you will get a zero, even if your group members upload
it.
ü Note that, I value the way information is presented; which means that I would like to
see neat, well-organized, nice looking projects.
ü Papers will be graded on application of course content and organization of research
information.
ü Please note: ‘Late papers will not be accepted’.
GRADING RUBRIC
Grading criteria Marks
allocated
Completing “Terminal Basics” course by the deadline
(If you get the BMC certificate, it is extra 3 points)
3
Entering the company of choice in the excel spreadsheet before the deadline 2
Company overview 8
Company stock price return and index return comparison 5
Stock return, average and standard deviation calculation in excel 7
Board composition review
Providing all the information 7
Comments on the board diversity 6
Industry Overview
Major competitors 3
Comparison with the major competitor 3
Graphs and charts 5
Fundamental Analysis
Solvency analysis (debt to equity) 3
Profitability ratios (Net profit margin, ROA, ROE) 9
Valuation ratios (Price earning ratio, market to book ratio, dividend
payout) 9
Graphs and charts 8
Conclusion 8
Including the screenshots and from the Bloomberg terminal 9
Grammar and organization 5
TOTAL 100
