evaluate the stock market performance of firms who manufacture accounting software products

Excel Project
Part I:
This assignment is based upon Stock Portfolio Analysis and consists of two (2) parts – an Excel-based assignment and a paper.

You have been assigned to evaluate the stock market performance of firms who manufacture accounting software products. Your evaluation will be based upon large and medium market firms. The firms are as follows:

Large Market Stocks:
1. Oracle Software (Oracle Corp: NASDAQ)
2. SAP (SAP AG: NYSE)

Medium Market Stocks:
1. Microsoft Great Plains (Microsoft: NASDAQ)
2. QuickBooks (Intuit: NASDAQ)
3. Peachtree (Sage Grp: LSE)

Part 1: Excel Spreadsheet Assignment

Scenario 1:
You will invest $500,000 in each of the stocks listed above. The purchase date of the stock will be 12 months ago. Track your stocks’ daily performance for the 120 trading days following the purchase date. During this time you will note the gains and losses each day. At the end of the 120 days tracking period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for each stock and your total investment at the end of the 90 days. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance. You will create a minimum of two charts. (Note: Your purchase must be in whole shares. For example, you cannot purchase 100.5 shares. You must purchase either 100 or 101 shares. For this reason, you may not invest exactly $500,000.)

Scenario 2:
You will repeat the steps from Scenario 1, except that instead of investing $500,000 in each stock, you will invest $750,000 in the two Large Market stocks. At the end of the 120-day period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for each stock and your total investment. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance (NOTE: you will create a minimum of two charts).

Scenario 3:
You will repeat the steps from Scenario 1, except that instead of investing $500,000 in each stock, you will invest $750,000 in two Medium Market stocks. At the end of the 120-day period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for each stock and your total investment. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance (NOTE: you will create a minimum of two charts).

Scenario 4:
You will repeat the steps from Scenario 1, except that instead of investing $500,000 in each stock, you will invest $1,000,000 in the best performing stocks from each group. At the end of the 120-day period, calculate your net gain (or loss) for each stock and your total investment. Develop the appropriate charts that highlight your performance (NOTE: you will create a minimum of two charts).

Note:
Do not worry about any commission fees or miscellaneous charges.

Assignment:
Determine how much money you earned or lost with each stock on a daily basis.

Instructions on how to complete:
There is no sample Excel workbook to use as part of the project, therefore you will create your own workbook. In creating your workbook, be sure to include the following data (however, other data will be stored in your scenario) in a columnar format.

o Stock name
o Stock symbol
o Number of shares purchased/acquired
o Stock price
o Date of stock transaction

Start your scenario using the opening day price for each stock as your purchase price and use the closing stock price to calculate how much money you earned or lost each day.

At the end of your scenario, calculate the following for each stock in question.

o The highest stock price for the period
o The lowest stock price for the period
o The average stock price for the period
o The largest amount of profit (loss) earned for the period
o The lowest amount of profit (loss) earned for the period

Track the stock for 120 consecutive days that the market is open.

Submit:
One Excel workbook that contains each of the four scenarios. You will need to use the appropriate Excel formulas and functions which will show the instructor how you derived your results.

Part II: Paper

1. Write a 3 page paper that summarizes your findings from the four (4) scenarios as well as how using Microsoft Excel helped you with this process, using the following outline:

2. Summarize the various accounting systems that each firm provides. Be sure to address the following for each firm:

a. The various types of accounting systems it sells (e.g., Oracle sells Oracle Financials as well as PeopleSoft financials)

b. The industries that it markets itself to (e.g., most firms sell their products to banking firms, construction firms)

c. Explain how Wall Street views the firm. Are they positive? Negative? Why?

3. Explain the results from the four (4) scenarios. Be sure to discuss where you obtained your stock prices from and why you chose that source.

4. Analyze the four (4) scenarios and develop a scenario that would have exceeded the results from your best scenario. (NOTE: This will result in a fifth scenario that shows your best scenario).

5. Explain how Excel helped you with this activity and what other activities you could have done in Excel with the data provided.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific Course Learning Outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Solve business problems with Microsoft Excel.

Organize information between Word and Excel.

Use technology and information resources to research issues that impact the accounting profession.

Write clearly and concisely about accounting using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

I purchased 4 pages, one for part one (excel spreadsheet) and 3 for part two.

Sources not necessary but its okay to use

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