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In September 2008, Andrew Ferris, an analyst with Papillion Capital LLC, was asked to evaluate Heartland Payment Systems, Inc.'s shares for possible inclusion in Papillion's Growth Service equity fund. Heartland, a provider of bank card payment services, had aggressively acquired new merchant accounts with an expanding direct sales force after its initial public offering (IPO) in 2005. It focused its expansion plans on restaurants, brick-and-mortar retailers, convenience and liquor stores, automotive sales, repair shops and gas stations, professional service providers, and lodging establishments. In January 2008, Heartland's management revised downwards its forecasted EPS guidance for 2008. The company compensated its sales force solely though commissions, based upon the performance of their merchant accounts. Avondale Partners noted that Heartland paid approximately 92 percent of the company's estimated gross profits generated from merchants' accounts, which resulted in little free cash flow during the initial year of a merchant's contract. Avondale questioned the company's policy of capitalizing and amortizing signing bonuses and monthly residuals, instead of expensing them immediately. In early 2008, Morgan Keegan & Co., an investment firm, maintained its price target for Heartland of $26-$29 per share.

Primo Benzina AG was a retail chain of petrol stations offering petrol, snacks, restaurant meals, and high-quality service in central Europe. The company began operations with four outlets and sales of €2.4 million in 2006, and grew to 24 outlets and sales of €38.1 million in 2009. The company's rapid growth in revenues was accompanied by declining profitability. Dresdner Bank reluctantly increased the maximum amount available to the company to €12 million from €10 million. In early 2010, Otto Schroder, Chief Executive Officer, and Annegret Heuermann, the company's chief financial officer, completed a review of the company's financial situation. The company's executives were unsure whether the new credit limit would permit the company to implement its growth strategy, since the company now had a limited amount of cash available to finance additional outlays for working capital and capital expenditures.

Anna Amphlett, a financial analyst at Textron Corporation, has been asked by the controller to benchmark the company's recent financial performance against competitors in the aerospace and defense industry. Top management plans to assess the performance of the company's supply chain and its future working capital requirements. Textron experienced impressive stock price growth in the last five years, but top management is particularly interested in understanding the company's sizeable investments in net working capital over the same period. In benchmarking Textron's performance, Amphlett must also consider what to do about accounting method differences across companies in the aerospace and defense industry, since they may have a significant effect on the interpretation of differences in reported performance.

Cambridge Space Systems plc, a small private company headquartered in Cambridge, England, was engaged in the design and manufacture of small rockets and space systems for commercial, military, and civil customers. In September 2005, Cambridge approached Equator Partners, a private equity firm, about a potential buyout. Since Equator funded its acquisitions with large amounts of debt, potential acquisitions needed excellent cash flow generation, and modest levels of long-term debt. Andrew Amphlett, a recently hired MBA from London Business School, had to analyze Cambridge to determine whether Equator Partners should pursue a buyout of the closely held firm.

In 2005, Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris established Aussie Pies to produce and distribute authentic Australian meat pies after observing the popularity of the pot pies on a visit to Australia. Seattle's Pike Street Market was chosen for the location of the first store because it was a favorite destination for international travelers who were ready consumers of new and exotic products. After initiating an aggressive sales and marketing effort, and the introduction of new products, Aussie Pies grew rapidly from a single store and sales of $6 million in 2006 to 10 stores and sales of $10.35 million by 2009. Yet, the company's rapid growth in revenues was accompanied by declining profits and a substantial increase in receivables, inventories, and capital investments in new stores. The resulting cash outflows were financed by increased borrowing from Bank of America as well as stretching the company's payables, i.e., taking longer to pay suppliers. Bank of America reluctantly increased the maximum amount available to the company under its term loan to $3 million from $2 million. In early January 2010, Jan Muska, the company's chief financial officer, was unsure whether the new credit limit would permit the company to implement its growth strategy of opening five new stores in 2010.

This case provides financial statement data for ten companies from ten different industries from Thomson Banker One-Analytics. Using knowledge of the industries' financial characteristics and financial ratios, the case asks student to match each of the ten financial statement data sets to an appropriate industry. The case provides common-sized income statements (all items scaled by revenues), common-sized balance sheets (all items scaled by total assets) and selected financial ratios. All data are averaged over three years-2004-2006-to smooth out one-time items.

Jan Muska, a financial analyst with Fidelity Investments, must evaluate Statoil ASA for possible inclusion in the company's Energy Fund portfolio. During the period January 1, 2001 - September 15, 2006, Statoil's stock, which was listed as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) on the NYSE, outperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin. In August 2006, an ING analyst issued a report changing the firm's rating on Statoil from buy to hold. In October 2006, ValuEngine issued a market "outperform" rating and set a target price of $28.40 per share. With conflicting analyst opinions on Statoil's value, Muska must prepare his own evaluation of Statoil's financial performance and valuation and make a recommendation to the portfolio manage of Fidelity's Energy Fund.

Aussie Pies, Inc. was established in Seattle, Washington in 2005 after Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris discovered Aussie meat pies on a vacation to Australia. The meat pie, a hand-sized pot pie made with pastry and filled with minced (ground) beef and gravy, is consumed as a takeaway food snack in Australia. To obtain financing from Bank of America, the company's business plan initially forecasted sales of a little over one million dollars in 2006, the first year of operations. But with an aggressive sales and marketing campaign, sales reached $6 million in 2006. Although sales greatly exceeded their expectations, Amphlett and Ferris were disappointed that net income in the first year was only $786,000 and that the company had cash on hand of just $200,000 at the end of 2006.

Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris are in the planning stages of developing and operating a store in Seattle's Pike Place Market that would make and distribute Australian meat pies under the trademarked name, Aussie Pies. The meat pies would be made from lean beef raised using no hormones or insecticides. The retail store where the pies would be made and distributed would be visibly clean and hygienic to customers who would be able to see the production area at the back of the store through a large glass wall. Amphlett and Ferris have contributed to the business the land they purchased in Pike place Market. The entrepreneurs have approached Puget Sound Band for a loan, but the bank asked the entrepreneurs to provide the company's business plan including project financial statements for the first year of operations.

On a recent visit to Australia, Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris observed Australians consuming large numbers of meat pies, the national food of Australia. Believing that Americans would also enjoy consuming meat pies, they developed plans to sell authentic Australian meat pies-Aussie Pies-from a store at Seattle, Washington's Pike Place Market. Amphlett and Ferris obtained information on the costs of making a meat pie and operating a store at Pike Place Market. Market research provided estimates of how much consumers might pay for a meat pie, given competition from traditional U.S. fast food, such as hamburgers and hot-dogs.

Andrew Amphlett's first assignment as a recently hired MBA at Sequim Investments was to evaluate NIKE Inc. for possible addition to the company's high-growth equity portfolio. NIKE's revenues had grown substantially during 2003 and 2004, in large part because of growth in global sales. Although the company's share price had climbed to over $70 per share, JPMorgan reported $88 per share as their newly established target price. A Value Line report on NIKE, however, noted that there was little upside stock price potential to NIKE's shares because much of the anticipated growth was already impounded in the current price. Amphlett must prepare a financial and valuation analysis of NIKE and make a portfolio recommendation to his boss.

The collapse of Enron will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most notorious corporate scandals in the twentieth century. Enron's employees lost billions of dollars in retirement savings tied up in Enron as stock became worthless. The rise and fall of Enron was marked by inflated earnings and substantial amounts of hidden debt, enabled by the use of special purpose entities, the application of unethical accounting techniques, and an unquestioning board of directors. The transformation of Enron from a mundane natural gas transportation company into a financial trading empire, with operations in natural gas, water, broadband, electricity, power plants, and exotic derivatives, was masterminded by Jeffrey Skilling, one-time chief executive officer, and Andrew Fastow, the company's chief financial officer. In the aftermath of the company's collapse, the U.S. Congress enacted sweeping changes to corporate governance. But why did Enron's collapse take the financial community by complete surprise? Were there any warning signs that Enron was not as financially solid as it appeared? The case examines these issues using data from Enron's 2000 10-K and Compustat data for 1984-2000.

Home Store, Inc. is a retail chain of home improvement stores catering primarily to middle income female homemakers interested in undertaking do-it-yourself (DIY) and do-it-for-me (DIFM) projects. The company grew rapidly from a single store with sales revenue of $8.8 million in 2001 to 20 stores with total sales of $11.334 million in 2003. Yet, the company's rapid growth in revenues has been accompanied by declining profits and a substantial increase in receivables, inventories, and capital investments in new stores. The resulting cash outflows have been financed by increased borrowing from Bank of America as well as stretching the company's payables, i.e., taking longer to pay suppliers. Bank of America reluctantly increased the maximum amount available to the company under its term loan to $5 million from $2.6 million. In early January 2004, Hermione Granger, President and Chief Executive Officer of Home Store, Inc., and Ron Weasley, the company's chief financial officer, completed a review of the company's financial situation. The company's executives are unsure whether the new credit limit will permit the company to implement its growth strategy since there is only $1.464 million remaining under the term loan at the beginning of 2004.

In 2000, Fairfield Communities, Inc. was one of the largest timeshare operators in the U.S. The company's portfolio of resorts consisted of 35 resorts located in 12 states and the Bahamas. Of the company's resorts, 25 were located in destination areas with popular vacation attractions such as Daytona Beach, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada and ten were located in scenic regional locations. Fairfield sold and financed vacation ownership intervals (VOI) providing a deeded interest in the use of a fully furnished vacation property of a specific size, at a specific location, at a specific time of the year and a specified length of stay. Customers typically provided a down payment of 16%-18% of the purchase price and financed the balance. Approximately, 80% of Fairfield's customers elected to finance their VOI purchases through the company on terms of up to seven years and at interest rates of approximately 15% per year. To finance its rapid growth, Fairfield securitized the receivables by "selling" them to special purpose entities (SPE). The SPE issued debt collateralized by the receivables. As permitted under U.S. GAAP, Fairfield accounted for the SPE using the equity method of accounting rather than consolidating the SPE's financial statements. Thus, the SPE's debt did not directly appear on Fairfield's balance sheet. An acquisition offer from Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise-line company, was withdrawn after Carnival's stock price dropped 42% after the announcement. In November 2000, Fairfield received an offer from Cendant Corporation to acquire the company for $15 per share. Valerie Amphlett, an analyst with Arbitrage Fund, has been asked to examine Fairfield's recent financial performance, including an analysis of the effects of the company's accounting treatment of the SPE to determine whether Fairfield is worth $15 per share.

Enron is evaluating whether to build the Escondido Power Plant, a 500 MW combined cycle natural gas plant in Douglas, Arizona, at a cost of $250 million. The plant would sell energy under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Construction of the plant, expected to be completed in 18 months, would be financed with a loan from Credit Suisse First Boston (CF First Boston). During construction, interest would be capitalized. Upon completion of construction, the plant would be financed with 60% debt and 40% equity. Enron and General Electric Capital (GE) would each provide 50% of the equity. At the end of the 20-year period, the plant would be sold at book value.

This case focuses on analyzing financial statement data for seven large companies in the pharmaceutical industry. The data was obtained from COMPUSTAT PC Plus. The seven firms are all listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The firms (ticker symbols) are American Home Products Corp. (AHP), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY), Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY), Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. (PNU) and SmithKline Beecham PLC (SBH). The seven companies are all headquartered in the U.S., except SmithKline Beecham which is headquartered in the U.K. All are involved in the development, production and distribution of prescription pharmaceutical drugs.