Managerial Finance: Final Case Study Report (Visa vs. MasterCard)

Project Rationale
The objective of the financial analysis research project are to enable you to prepare and produce a comprehensive financial analysis of two publicly-traded corporation.  Using the two companies (Visa and Mastercard) you will work as a team to compare these two competitors and provide a critical analysis of these two corporations financial ratios to make recommendations regarding investing in either of these companies.

First, your team will calculate the required financial ratios for each company (Visa and Mastercard) using their annual data from 2018, and present in MS Excel. 

V Financial Statements Final Project
MA Financial Statements Final Project

Second, your team will write a financial analysis report that utilizes your financial ratios and supported with written analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of the data. Your team’s analysis should be focused on the main theme:

Would you invest your financial capital in either firm as a shareholder?

Excel Financial Ratios
For this project your team will prepare financial ratios in MS Excel using the accounting statements provided.  Teams must provide the calculations for the following ratios for each company using the 2018 annual data.  Calculations must be performed and submitted in an MS Excel spreadsheet.

Profitability Ratios

Gross Margin
Operating Margin
Net Profit Margin

Liquidity Ratios

Current Ratio
Cash Ratio

Leverage Ratios

Debt to Equity

Operating Returns

ROE
ROA

Project Deliverables
For this project you and your team will prepare financial ratios using the accounting statements provided. 
1. Your team will prepare an Excel document which provides the calculations for the ratios required for the project. The Excel document should clearly identify each company and their specific ratio calculations.
2. Your team will submit a written analysis of your findings. This final analysis should be written as a professional stock analysis of these two competitors and utilize supporting evidence in your analysis (citations and references). The final written analysis must follow APA formatting and should be no more than 15 pages (including charts and references). The analysis should include:

Analysis of the two businesses and a discussion of the payments industry, including but not limited to, strengths of these businesses, opportunities moving forward, potential threats to their business models.
Critical analysis of each of the main ratio calculations related to each company. This critical analysis should include the calculations, results, an explanation of the importance of the ratio, and an analysis of which company has an advantage based upon the calculations. This analysis should include graphs and figures to supplement your written analysis.
Clear conclusion which summarizes the advantages and disadvantages for each company, with an ultimate answer related to which company you would choose to invest using clear and convincing reasoning.