This is a lab from Data Analytics for Accounting by Vernon Richardson.

Lab 8-3 Analyze Financial Statement Ratios Financial analysts, investors, lenders, auditors, and many others perform ratio analysis to help review and evaluate a company's financial statements and financial performance. This analysis allows the stakeholder to gain an understanding of the financial health of the com- pany and gives insights to allow more insightful and, hopefully, more effective decision making. In this lab, you will access XBRL data to complete data analysis and generate finan- cial ratios to compare the financial performance of several companies. Financial ratios.can more easily be calculated using spreadsheets and XBRL. You will ( I) select an industry to analyze, (2) create a copy of a spreadsheet template. (3) input ticker symbols from three U.S. public companies, and (4) calculate financial ratios and make observations about the state of the companies using these financial ratios. Data . Financial Elements from XBRL from SEC Filings Software needed Google Account Google Sheets Browser connected to Internet Specifically, you will: Part 1: Identify the questions. Part 2: Master the data and prepare for analysis. Part 3: Input ticker symbols into the template. Part 4: Analyze the financial ratios. Part 1: Identify the Questions Interested stakeholders of the firm need access to real-time, accurate financial data. Since 201 1. stakeholders have used XBRI. data to meet this need.Q1. How does XBRL fulfill the need for real-time, accurate financial data? Q2. Why is it useful to compare multiple companies at once? Part 2: Master the Data and Prepare for Analysis To master the data and prepare for analysis, we need to pick which industry and which companies to analyze. 1. Below is a list of 15 Fortune 100 companies in five different industries. Each of these companies has attributes and strategies that are similar to and different from its com- petitors. Choose one industry to analyze. Retail: WalmartWMTL Target (TGTL Costco (Cost) Technology: Microsoft (MSETL Ample (AAPLL Facebook (ER) Pharmaceutical: Johnson & Johnson (NIL. Merck (MRKL Bristol-Myers Squibb ( BMY) Finance: Citigroup (CL Wells Fargo (WECL JPMOURAD Chase (JPM) Energy: ExxonMobil (XOML Cheron (CVXL ConocoPhillips (COP) Create a copy of a spreadsheet template in the following way: 2. Open a web browser and go to drive.google.com. 3. If you haven't done so already, sign in to your Google account. 4. Go to http://tinyurl.com/xbriratios. You will see a spreadsheet similar to Lab Exhibit 8-3A. 5. Click File > Make a copy. . . as shown in Lab Exhibit 8-3A. 6. Rename your spreadsheet if desired and click OK to save a copy to your Drive, A new tab will open with your copy of the spreadsheet. You may now edit the values and formulas. Financial Ratios wah XARL LAB EXHIBIT 8-3A XBRL Financial Ratios in Google Sheets Microsoft Excel 2016 iancial Ratios Lovin Mocil Corp Chavan Corp 2013 2014 2014 2012 2014 2015Part 3: Input Ticker Symbols Refer to Lab Exhibit 8-3B for your industry's ticker symbols. LAB EXHIBIT 8-3B Retail Technology Pharmaceutical Finance Eneric Input Ticker Symbols WMT MSF JNJ XOM TOT AAPL MRK WFC CVS KR FB BMY JPM PSX 7. Referring to Lab Exhibit 8-3B for your industry's ticker symbols, in the Main Company Ticker field, input the ticker of the company you would like to focus your analysis on and press Enter. In a moment, the value on the spreadsheet will change to Loading. . . and then show your company's financial figures. 8. In the Most Recent Year field, enter the most recent reporting year. It may be the cur- rent year or the previous year. 9. In the Period field, enter either FY for a fiscal year or Q1 for first quarter, etc. 10. In the Round to field, choose the rounding amount. 1,000 will round to thousands of dollars; 1.000.000 will round to millions of dollars. I1. In the Comparable 1 Ticker field, input the ticker of a second company you would like to compare with your first company. 12. In the Comparable 2 Ticker field, input the ticker of a third company you would like to compare with your first company. 13. Take a screenshot (label it 8-3A) of your figure with the financial statements of your chosen companies. Part 4: Analyze the Financial Ratios First, review the Facts sheet (or tab) to determine whether there are any values missing for the companies you are analyzing. Describe what impact (if any ) the missing data have on the ratios. Once you have determined whether any data are missing, you have a chance to find some interesting trends and comparisons in the data. You will click through the sheets at the bottom to review the ratios. To aid in this analysis, the template also includes sparklines that provide a mini-graph to help you quickly visualize any significant values or trends. Q3. Review the 14 financial ratios shown heress the tabs and make some consly- signs of judgments about the values. trends. or comparisons with the other com- pagies. Forexample. if one company bass.significantly higher debt to equity ratio than the other two. what might be driving this? Q4. Has the company you are analyzing seen any major changes in its ratios in the past three years? Which of the three companies is most liquid in the most cure rent year! Q5. How has your company managed short-term liabilities over the last three years? 06. Analyze liquidity, profitability, financing (leverage), and activity for your com- Q6. Analyze liquidity, profitability, financing (leverage), and activity for your com- pany. Where is it strong? Consider the DuPont framework to interpret the results and make sure you make a judgment about your company's financial position based upon the data. End of Lab