Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Revision, Auditing, grade: 1,0, Stralsund University of Applied Sciences, course: International Accounting, language: English, abstract: The objective of this essay is to evaluate the Kodak financial report 2004 from an investor's point of view. Unlike the management's perspective, which often tries to present the most positive picture possible this analysis is designed to most clearly and critically reflect financial reality, in order to arrive at an estimate of its future potential and value. In deciding whether to buy, hold or sell the company's securities, answers to such questions as follows will be determined in this analysis: - What is the company's record with regard to growth and stability of earnings and cash flow from operations? - How well has the company performed and why? What operating areas have contributed to success and which have not? - What are the company's strengths and weaknesses? How are areas of strengths and weaknesses affecting the company's financial condition and performance? - How risky is the company's financial structure? - How does the company's operating performance compare with its industry competitors? The following chapters will try to concentrate on this questions by dealing with the most important information in a financial report, which is the basic set of financial statements: income statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows. The statement of shareholder's equity will not be part of this essay, as it is not widely used for analysis and will be shortly covered in the balance sheet chapter. The statements will be discussed and analyzed in detail in the chapters 2-4. In the last chapter, Kodak's background with regard to its firm, industry and economy will be outlined; furthermore, key financial ratios will be calculated and compared to the industrial average. Finally, the investment decision will explained by estimating the future potential and value of the company.
