Acc 230 Wk 9 Assignment

Evaluating Financial Health

Mary Spradlin

Acc/230

May 15, 2011

Evaluating Financial Health

The Company that I will be evaluating will be Wal-Mart; my comparison company will be Sears. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, reports its first-quarter results Tuesday before the market opens. Analysts expect the company to report that revenue in its U.S. stores open at least a year fell 1 percent compared with a year earlier, including a 1.1 percent drop at Wal-Mart stores and a 3 percent increase at Sam's Clubs, according to Fact Set. That comparison is an important indicator of a retailer's financial health because it excludes revenue from stores that recently opened or closed. Wal-Mart is trying several means to revive its U.S. growth, bring back disaffected customers, and draw new ones. Wal-Mart said in February that it expected the comparison to be anywhere from flat to down 2 percent for Wal-Mart stores in the U.S., where sales are hurting because of mistakes the company made on price and selection. Wal-Mart's international business, which produces 26 percent of company revenue, has remained strong, and the company expects growth in emerging markets to accelerate.

It is very important to compare companies in the same industry. For one thing, you will want to know which company is doing better on their profits, especially if you are interesting with investing in the company. Maybe you want to buy stock into a company; you would want to know how well this company is doing compared to others in their industry. Not only will you want to check out everything about the company, like all of their financial statements, but if they are in debt their self. There are several different statements that you can and should look at, not just the financial part of a company. The proxy statement contains useful information about the board of directors, director and executive compensation, option grants, audit-related matters,...