Portfolio Management and the Analysis of Stocks

For this assignment I chose 3 stocks that I will be analyzing and making Excel files that will make up an entire project at the end. 1. Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM)NasdaqGS – NasdaqGS Real Time Price. Currency in USD 2. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A)NYSE – NYSE Delayed Price. Currency in USD 3. Amazon The purpose of the project is to develop a strategy for investing a specific sum of money. For the three stocks I need to discuss economic condition, industry/sector condition, and firm’s financial analysis based on three criteria: (1) the evaluation of the companys financial performance, including measures of liquidity, leverage, profitability, and asset management; (2) the ability of the student to relate economic/industry environment to the companys financial performance. (3) the quality of the display and graphing in report, PPT, and Excel. Also make a portfolio statistic and estimate systemic risk: download the past five years of monthly price data for 3-5 stocks of his/her choice and the S&P 500 Index from Yahoo! Finance. Student will use Excel to compute monthly returns for stocks and S&P 500 Index. Students will then use Excel to estimate means and standard deviations for each stocks returns, as well as a correlation matrix across all returns. Students will also use Excel to estimate Security Characteristic Line (SCL) and the beta coefficient by using to measure systematic risk. Students will then compute the expected return of the stock as of the presentation date, implied by the beta coefficient under the single factor specification of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Students will turn in their calculations, including spreadsheets showing the raw stock prices, calculations, and relevant graphs. Student grades will be based upon the following criteria: (1) correctly identify and download stock price data from Yahoo! Finance; (2) correctly perform statistical computations of mean returns, standard deviations and the correlation matrix of returns; (3) perform a correct analysis to derive the beta coefficient and expected returns; and (4) the quality of the display and graphing in report, PPT, and Excel. And Construct an optimal portfolio using Excel Solver: In the portfolio project, students will derive an optimal portfolio using the optimization technique such as Excel solver. Student grades will be based upon the following scores: (1) correctly utilize Solver to derive the optimal portfolio; and (2) the quality of the display and graphing of the optimal portfolio in report, PPT, and Excel.