The purpose of a corporate annual report is to communicate to stockholders and other interested parties its financial statements. The annual report is a summary of the corporation’s operations over the previous 12 month time period and states the corporation’s plans for the future. Many annual reports are created to resemble a corporate brochure, using lots of pictures, color, charts and graphs. Despite the fancy look, the main purpose of the report is to provide the year’s financial data, which comes from the corporation’s accounting system.
Instructions:
Obtain a current Annual Report for any U.S. company you are interested in analyzing. You may download it from its Website or from the LRC database called Mergent Online. Each student must choose a different company to analyze; therefore students must receive approval of your selected company from your professor by Week 5 of the class.
Write a 2-3 page paper in which you:
•Identify and explain the main sections of the annual report.
•Discuss the key factors that influenced the company’s financial performance during the year.
•Discuss the primary assets held by the company.
•Explain how management characterizes the internal control environment of the company.
Hewlett-Packard , Fiscal Year-2012
Answer will be sent by email as attachment.
