Assessment 2 is an analysis of Woolworths Ltd financial statements within their business context, culminating in a report that contains your own critical analysis and discussion, to arrive at a well-argued recommendation to invest in Woolworths, or not.
This assessment is to be carried out individually, and will be assessed using the rubric provided. Make sure you reference in accordance with university rules, and be certain that the work you submit through Safe Assign on Blackboard is your own. University rules on plagiarism are available on Blackboard, and you should be familiar with them, and ensure that you comply fully.
Value of report: 35%
Length of report: 2500 words excluding Executive Summary and Appendices
Instructions: ACC701 Accounting for Managers
Obtain the annual reports for Woolworths Ltd for the years 2017 and 2016.
Obtain the company’s annual reports which are available for download as a pdf file from the company’s website. Alternatively the financial statement information for Woolworths Ltd can be accessed using the Company 360 database available via the USC Library website (https://libguides.usc.edu.au/companyinformation). If you access the reports on the Company360 database, make sure you also obtain all of the accompanying annual report information e.g. chairman’s report, auditor’s report and others.
Analysis requirements:
Using ratios in Table 10 in your textbook, on pages 324 – 326, carry out ratio analysis for both years. Also do a common size analysis for both years. Obtain five years of data (2013 – 2017) for Revenue (Sales) and for Net Profit After Tax and do a trend analysis and graph both trends.
Carry out any other analysis that you consider helps illustrate and explain Woolworths Ltd performance and position and assists you to make your recommendation.
Include all analyses in Appendices to your report.
Report requirements:
Write a report about Woolworths Ltd to a group of potential investors, using the retail industry’s operating, competitive, and strategic environments as context for your discussion. On pp 335-337 of your textbook there is a case study which has some suggestions about how to interpret financial data and its analysis, follow its advice to first understand the business by reading the Chairman’s report, and other information provided about performance, operating environments, strategic direction, competition and other factors that might impact Woolworths’ performance in the future.
Now use your own analysis to discuss Woolworths’ profitability, efficiency, solvency and liquidity, and stock market performance. The goal of your report is to make a recommendation to the investor group about whether to invest in this company, and why or why not.
In your discussion take care that any conclusions you derive are in the context of industry and operating environment; if you draw a conclusion make sure that you have argued why and how you come to this conclusion, also use relevant industry benchmarks that you can obtain from internet sources. Do not resort to ‘rules of thumb’ from textbooks or any other source, as support for your conclusions. Industry benchmarks will be highly regarded, ‘rules of thumb’ will not, and may result in loss of marks unless their use can be justified as being relevant in this case.
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Writing a Report:
Use the structure below
- Executive Summary – maximum of one page, preferably half a page
- Table of Contents
- Introduction – scope of the report plus brieflyintroduce the subject company
- Relevant background to the company
- Analysis and discussion
- Conclusions
- Recommendations
- References
- Appendices
The required length of the report is 2500 words, excluding the Executive Summary and Appendices.
How is the report graded?
The grading rubric is provided below, and on the Assessment tab for Assessment 2 on Blackboard.
The mark awarded is initially out of 100. Task 2 counts for 35% of the semester marks for ACC701.
| ACC701 Accounting for Managers
grading criteria for Financial Statement Analysis and Report assignment 2 (35% of assessment, marked out of 100) |
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| Criteria | Unsatisfactory 0 to 49% | Pass | Credit | Distinction | High Distinction |
| Contextual research of company, industry and environment; current, relevant, research and data sources referenced in appropriate style
Weight: 15 |
Demonstrates little or no relevant research evidence to support ideas. Limited or no referencing, with errors. | Demonstrates limited use of relevant research evidence from a limited range of sources to support ideas that are appropriate for the topic with many referencing errors and/or omissions | Demonstrates some use of relevant research evidence from a limited range of sources to support ideas that are appropriate for the topic with some referencing errors and/or omissions. | Demonstrates good use of relevant research evidence from numerous sources to support ideas that are appropriate for the topic with accurate referencing. | Demonstrates extensive and accurate use of relevant research evidence from arange of related sources to support ideas that are appropriate for the topic. Accurate referencing, plus accurate, credible, relevant, current data sources. |
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Analysis Weight: 25 |
Inadequate analysis breadth of analysis. Insufficient key ratios calculated and/or incorrect calculations.
No use of other analytical techniques |
Some limited attempts to broaden analysis. Most key ratios included, mostly correct calculations,
Limited use of other analytical techniques |
Some attempts to broaden analysis. Most key ratios included, mostly correct calculations,
Some use of other analytical techniques |
Broad choice of appropriate analytical tools and approaches, key ratios are included, mostly correct calculations,
Other analytical techniques used appropriately. |
Excellent breadth and depth of analysis. All key ratios included, correct calculations.
Excellent choice and application of other analytical techniques. |
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Critical analysis and discussion Weight: 40 |
Excessive focus on describing the data; inadequate or no critical analysis, little or no exploration of meaning; little or no discussion. | Limitedattempts at analysis, exploration of business meaning and discussion, but incomplete and not convincing. | Some attempts at analysis, exploration of business meaning and discussion, but incomplete and not wholly convincing. | Sound and thorough analysis and discussion of the meaning of your findings. | Excellent critical analysis and discussion of the meaning and implications of your findings. |
| Conforms with expectations for writing a professional report.
Weight: 10
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Demonstrates little or no ability to apply suitable conventions particular to a professional report including appropriate presentation, structure, style and format. | Demonstrates limited ability to apply some suitable conventions particular to a professional report including appropriate presentation, structure, style and format. | Demonstrates some ability to apply some suitable conventions particular to a professional report including appropriate presentation, structure, style and format. | Demonstrates sound ability to apply most suitable conventions particular to a professional report including appropriate presentation, structure, style and format. | Demonstrates excellent ability to apply all suitable conventions particular to a professional report including appropriate presentation, structure, style and format. |
| Sentence construction; grammar; punctuation & spelling.
Weight: 10 |
Language used is not clear and /or does not convey meaning to readers. It contains frequent grammatical and/or spelling errors. | Uses basic language that conveys some meaning to the readers, writing includesmany errors. | Uses appropriate language that generally conveys meaning to the readers, although writing includes some errors. | Uses appropriate language that conveys meaning to readers with clarity and minimal errors. | Uses excellent language that clearly and concisely conveys meaning to readers with few or no errors. |
| Mark out of 100
Mark out of 35% |
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