Albert Long has just been awarded a large academic scholarship. As he had already saved enough money from his summer job to pay for his current year's expenses, he has decided to invest the scholarship to maximize the funds he will have available for the next school year. Because he will need the money in about a year, Albert wants to invest in a fairly stable company and has decided that RBC Financial seems to be a very profitable investment.
Albert has obtained the company's annual report and has completed a very thorough ratio analysis. However, he has relied heavily on financial statements to perform the ratio analysis and only skimmed the other components of the annual report. You are a good friend of Albert's and explain to him that, although ratio analysis provides a good indication as to a company's financial strength, there is much more information available that an informed investor should consider before making any investment decisions.
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Albert has asked you to help him investigate RBC Financial further. Other than ratio analysis, give him four examples of information that an investor might want to examine in order to fully understand a business. Where might this information be available?