In this unit, we learned how to evaluate the overall performance of a company using ratio and trend analyses. These tools are important for internal (management, employees, mergers and acquisition departments) and external (investors, suppliers, analysts) users of company financial statements.Apply this knowledge to this discussion task below:

In the second week, you selected a manufacturing company and described its products and costs. For this week, refer back to that company and perform a trend analysis for the most recent 4 years (the financial statements needed for this assignment may be available at https://finance.yahoo.com/). Analyze the trends for 3 line items you believe are most important in evaluating a company for the balance sheet and for the income statement (3 each). In your initial post, answer the following questions:

What do you observe in the linear trends (i.e., are values increasing or decreasing)?

What are the trends on a common-size basis?

What would be your next steps in completing a thorough analysis of the trends?