Verified Document

Financial Statements Part I.A. The Research Proposal

Working capital reduction is not always a bad thing -- tightening receivables and inventory turns is often considered to be good financial policy. In the case of Unilever, it is important to synthesize the two statements. We can see, for example, that "unusual expense" is the category most responsible for the change in working capital. At this point, it would be advisable to delve deeper into the comments in the annual report to discern the precise nature of these unusual items, as they will reveal the cause for the steady decrease in "unusual items" that has fueled the widening gulf between net income and cash flow from operations in the past five years.

I would predict that Kraft will work in the next few years to reduce costs. Their revenues have experienced steady increase, but their net income has not. They will focus their efforts on reducing the selling/general/administrative expenses. The other prediction I will make about Kraft is that they work to reduce their liabilities. They have experienced a sharp jump in liabilities over the past couple of years, which has had adverse impact on their capital structure. They will attempt to bring their debtload down over the next couple of years.

In the next couple of years, Unilever will continue their focus on reducing s/g/a expenses. They have begun this process, and saw significant improvement in this area in 2008. This has driven...

Another prediction for Unilever will be to continue to reduce working capital. This has been a significant focus for the company over the past five years. Indeed, over that span, Unilever has been able to execute steady improvement to its financial statements. As a result, the company's financial standing has steadily improved. It is fully reasonable to expect that Unilever will continue to work towards further financial statement improvement.
(These predictions are based on analysis of the past five years' worth of income statement, balance sheet and statements of cash flows from Unilever and Kraft).

Works Cited:

No author. (no author). Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.fasab.gov/accepted.html

No author. (2009). Liquidity Ratios. Investopedia. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidityratios.asp

Kraft financials from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=KFT

Unilever financials from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt.aspx?Symbol=UL

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited:

No author. (no author). Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.fasab.gov/accepted.html

No author. (2009). Liquidity Ratios. Investopedia. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidityratios.asp

Kraft financials from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=KFT

Unilever financials from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt.aspx?Symbol=UL
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Financial Statement of Sainsbury PLC
Words: 2870 Length: 9 Document Type: Essay

Financial statements are produced in order to help stakeholders understand the financial condition of the entity in question. Different types of entities, however, have different reporting requirements. A self-employed individual has very different needs from a limited company, and these are different from not-for-profit organisations as well. This paper will examine some of these differences. The first class of business is the self-employed individual. There are no reporting standards for self-employed

Financial Statement Analysis Westpac Wbc Westpac Banking
Words: 2163 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Financial Statement Analysis Westpac (WBC) Westpac banking corporation is one of the largest banking organizations in Australia, and the largest bank in New Zealand. Westpac provides arrays of banking and financial services in Austria, which include institutional banking, retail banking, and wealth management services. Established in 1817, Westpac is the first bank established in Australia. Since its formation, Westpac has increased in its strength, and at present Westpac has the market capitalisations

Financial Statement Analysis Project
Words: 2528 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

Financial Statement Analysis The following is an equity research report on Starbucks. The company competes primarily in the quick service food industry, where it holds the #5 market share in the United States, and #1 in its segment of coffee (QSR Magazine, 2011). The company had revenues last fiscal year (ended 10/2/11) of $11.7 billion and net income of $1.245 billion. The current stock price is $43.91, which gives the company

Financial Statements Accounting Is a Means of
Words: 905 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Financial Statements Accounting is a means of keeping track of a firm's financial transactions. There are two different types of accounting, financial and managerial. Financial accounting focuses on the construction of financial statements with the intention of providing an accurate overview of the firm's financial condition. The four major financial statements are the income statement, the balance sheet, the statement of changes in owner's equity and the statement of cash flows

Financial Statement Analysis Ambiguity and
Words: 871 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

This has been especially true in China and other Asian countries during the past several decades of economic expansion in that region of the world (Bai et al. 2008). Government stakeholders in many of these countries have benefited along with corporations in obscure and outright false financial statements and analyses as they have attracted money form foreign as well as domestic investors an enabled national growth for many Asian

Financial Statement Review Costa Company Balance Sheet
Words: 345 Length: 1 Document Type: Essay

Financial Statement Review Costa Company Balance Sheet Assets Cash Accounts Receivable Equipment (net of depreciation) Inventory Total Assets Liabilities Accounts Payable Long-term Debt Total Liabilities Stockholder's Equity Common Stock Paid in Capital Retained Earnings Total Stockholder's Equity Total Liabilities and Stockholder Equity Costa Company Income Statement Revenue Cost of Goods Sold Gross Profit Expenses Depreciation Expense Insurance Marketing Misc Expense Property Taxes Salaries Utilities Rent Total Expenses Net Income Balance Sheet errors effect the presentation of assets, liabilities, and equity where the Income Statement errors effect the classification of revenues and expenses (Kieso, Weygandt, & Warfield 2008, p 1174). The physical count of inventory shows the

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now