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6 Feb 2018

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***Any assistance on this is greatly appreciated! I am really struggling on figuring this out and it is due tomorrow!

As a new junior analyst for a large brokerage firm, you are anxious to demonstrate the skills you learned in college and prove that you are worth your attractive salary. Your first assignment is to analyze the stock of General Electric Corporation. Your boss recommends determining prices based on both the discounted free cash flow valuation method and the comparable P/E ratio method. You are a little concerned about your boss's recommendation because your finance professor has told you these two valuation methods can result in widely differing estimates when applied to read data. You are really hoping the two methods will reach similar prices.

1. Go to Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com) and enter the symbol for General Electric (GE). From the main page for GE, gather the following information and enter it into a spreadsheet:

a) The current stock price (last trade) at the top of the page.

b) The EPS (ttm).

2. Click on "Key Statistics" at the left side of the page. From the Key Statistics page, find the number of shares of stock outstanding and enter it into the spreadsheet.

3. Click on "Analyst Estimates" at the left side of the page. On the Analyst Estimates page, find the expected growth rate for the next five years and enter it into your spreadsheet. It will be near the very bottom of the page.

4. Click on "Competitors" at the left side of the page. The industry average P/E ratio is in the far right column, marked "Industry". Copy it into your spreadsheet.

5. Click on "Income Statement" near the bottom of the menu on the left. Copy and paste the entire three years' worth of income statements into a new worksheet in your existing Excel file. Repeat this process for both the balance sheet and the cash flow statement for GE. Keep all of the different statements in the same Excel worksheet.

6. To determine the stock value based on the discounted free cash flow method:

a) Forecast the free cash flows using the historic data from the financial statements downloaded from Yahoo! Finance to compute the three-year average of the following ratios:

i. EBIT/Sales

ii. Tax rate (income tax expense/income before taxes)

iii. Property, plant and equipment/sales

iv. Depreciation/property, plant, and equipment

v. Net Working Capital/Sales

b) Create an empty timeline for the next five years.

c) Forecast future sales based on the most recent year's total revenue growing at the five-year growth rate from Yahoo! Finance for the first five years.

d)Use the average ratios computed in part (a) to forecast EBIT, property, plant, and equipment, depreciation, and net working capital for the next five years.

e) Forecast the free cash flow for the next five years.

f) Determine the horizon enterprise value for year 5 and a long-run growth rate of 4% and a cost of capital for GE of 11%.

g) Determine the enterprise value of the firm as the present value of the free cash flows.

h) Determine the stock price. Note that your enterprise value is in $ thousands and the number of shares outstanding is in billions.

7. To calculate an estimate of GE's prices based on a comparable P/E ratio, mulitply the industy average P/E ratio by GE's EPS.

8. Compare the stock prices produced by the two methods to the actual stock price. What recommendations can you make as to whether clients should buy or sell GE's stock based on your price estimates?

9. Explain to your boss why the estimates from the two valuation methods differ. Specifically address the assumptions implicit in the models themselves as well as the assumptions you made in preparting your analysis. Why do these estimates differ from the actual stock price of GE?

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Trinidad Tremblay
Trinidad TremblayLv2
6 Feb 2018

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