Course Catalogue

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The course introduces students to theory and practice of financial statement analysis for investment analysis and investment decision making. The course is to build students' expertise in evaluating, interpreting, critically assessing, analysing and synthesising (including purposeful reformulation) of public companies' financial statements and other relevant information, with the purpose of establishing the companies' investment value and informing investment decisions. The course is taught from the perspective of professional capital market users (i.e., professional investors and analysts) of financial statement information, and while the course is practice-oriented, it also introduces students to theory and cutting-edge academic research in the field.

This is second semester course. There will be ten two-hour weekly meetings (active learning sessions).

Please refer to the current postgraduate prospectus at : https://www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate/.

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■ Degree Exam (60%): This is an individual assessment including questions that requires written responses. The exam covers ILOs 1,2,3 & 5.The exam consists of essay type questions as well as computational questions.

■ Group project report (40%), This assessment is completed by groups (4 students). The group project assignment consists of two components: First, each group must prepare an investment and valuation equity research report on a UK publicly traded company. Second, each group must prepare a brief peer-evaluation report on a draft (i.e., pre-submission) version of another group's investment and valuation equity research report. The group project addresses the following ILOs: 2,3,4,5,6. The group project must be submitted before the end of the teaching period.

• To introduce students to the theory and practice of financial statement analysis for investment analysis and investment decision-making.

•To develop students' expertise in evaluating, interpreting, critically assessing, analysing, and synthesizing (including purposeful reformulation) public companies' financial statements and other relevant information, with the purpose of establishing the companies' investment value and informing investment decisions.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Explain and critically discuss contemporary issues and evidence on the quality and relevance of financial statements.

2. Reformulate or adjust financial statements to generate appropriate inputs for company financial and valuation analysis.

3. Identify key profit drivers, business risks, and business strategies of a company and effectively analyze and interpret financial and non-financial information and figures in the context of the business risks and business strategies of a company.

4. Forecast the future performance and position of a firm based on justifiable reasonable assumptions about its future performance, its future position in the industry, and the future macro and microeconomic environment.

5. Critically assess different valuation models and their usage in practice; and compute company value by identifying and using relevant valuation models

6. Work in a team environment to produce a group project report; demonstrate engagement and collaboration with group members, as well as equitable allocation of tasks and contributions. Peer review helps student to improve their communication skills, the ability to give effective feedback and also receive feedback and act on it.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.