BUSINESS FINANCE

(Fundamentals of Corporate Finance)

BA 303 section 008
Spring 2011

CRN: 65633
Dates: Thursdays, March 28th through June 11th
Class Time: 5:40-9:20pm
Room: Cramer Hall #258

Instructor: Scott Thompson

Office: SBA 465
Office Hours: By appointment
Email: srthomp@pdx.edu
Website: http://www.pdx.edu/sba/fp-scott-thompson

Course
Description: The development and study of a decision framework for financial management,
with emphasis on small-to-medium-sized businesses. Topics include analysis of
financial health, planning for future financial performance, evaluation of potential
investments, and risk analysis. Financing of firm growth and valuation will be
introduced. An integration of financial management concepts as a total system
approach to decision-making will be facilitated with the use of cases, as
appropriate.

Prerequisites: 1. BA 205: Business Communications Using Technology: A working knowledge

of spreadsheets (MS Excel) is expected.
2. BA 211: Fundamentals of Financial Accounting
3. Junior Standing
4. Financial Calculator (with TVM functions) – NO Cell Phones, or I-Phone Apps

Note:
The School of Business Administration (SBA) strictly enforces prerequisites for
business courses. If you complete the prerequisites for a course after completing
the course, you will not receive credit for the prerequisite courses because you
have taken the courses out of sequence. Contact the SBA immediately if you
haven’t completed the prerequisite coursework.

Required
Text: Ross, Westerfield and Jordan: Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, 9 ed., Irwin,
2009

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Course
Objectives: Understand how and when to apply the basic concepts of financial analysis in a
business setting, demonstrated through your ability to:

9 Evaluate the financial health of firms through financial statement analysis

9 Forecast financial statements and determine funds needs
9 Use future and present value techniques to solve valuation problems
9 Forecast cash flow and performance characteristics of planned capital
expenditures
9 Understand and quantify the relationship of investment risk to investment
returns
9 Develop competence in the use of spreadsheets to present, analyze, and solve
financial problems.

Concepts &
Applications: By the conclusion of the course, you will be able to perform the following
financial decision making analyses, given the pedagogical approach and the
materials to be covered:

9 Understand time-value-of-money (TVM) calculations and applications in

financial problems
9 Use general valuation and general returns models to analyze securities and
capital investments
9 Understand cash flow and market value concepts
9 Construct and analyze basic Financial Statements (Balance Sheet, P&L,
Statement of Cash Flow)
9 Calculate and interpret basic financial ratios
9 Construct a full set of projected (pro forma) financial statements
9 Understand how to construct and assess a proposed capital budgeting project
9 Conduct project variance analysis
9 Understand basic history of securities performance and learn how to measure
and interpret historical returns
9 Understand the relationship between risk and returns: both in theory and
application
9 Understand how companies measure their cost of capital

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Grading
Procedures: Grades will be determined according to performance in the following:

Homework & Reading 20%

Weekly Quizzes 40%
Final Exam 40%
100%

Homework & Reading

Completing the homework on time is essential to keeping up with the class.
Homework assignments will be from the text, or occasionally from handouts, and
are due at the beginning of the class period. Late assignments will be penalized
by ten points (out of 100) for each calendar day they are late.

Complete assignments using Microsoft Excel ONLY. Many of the problems have
multiple steps, and you will need to show your work for each step. Credit will be
given for the steps, not just the answer. Please submit your homework via
Desire2Learn with the subject heading “HW-1” or “HW-2,” etc.

You are expected to read the chapters to be discussed PRIOR to class. Part of the
lecture will include questions from the reading material. Your reading will be
determined by class participation, as well as quiz questions.

Quizzes
There will be a quiz each week, for a total of eight. Your quiz grade will be
determined by the six best of the eight quizzes. I will not recognize any absences,
and there will be no make-up quizzes. If you take less than six quizzes, a zero
score will be averaged in for each quiz you miss.

Final
The final will be administered in class on our assigned final day. Specific
instructions will be given during class.

Other
Items: - Course participants are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic
honesty. Academic honesty is a requirement for completing this course.
Dishonest behavior will result in a zero for your test or quiz.
- The use of cell phones and text messaging is not allowed in class. Please mute
your phones and keep them in your bag.
- Dates, times, assignments and readings may change depending on class input
and my discretion. You are responsible for announcements made in class.
- Post general questions to the Discussion area on Desire2Learn – other students
may be able to answer your question. You can email me through Desire2Learn,
but if you need an immediate response (i.e.- within 24-48 hours), please email me
at srthomp@pdx.edu

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Schedule: Please remember that the reading is required PRIOR to the class.

DATE READING HOMEWORK DUE

Mar 31 Introduction
Apr 7 Chapters 1-3 1Critical Thinking Question: 1,6,11
Quiz #1 2CTQ: 1,2,5
2Problems: 1,2,3,4,8,15,16
3CTQ: 2,4,5
Apr 14 Chapter 4 3P: 1,2,4,5,6,9,17,22
Quiz #2 4CTQ: 1,5,6,7,9
Apr 21 Chapter 5,6 4P: 1,2,9,10,11,25,26,27
Quiz #3 5CTQ: 1,6,9
6CTQ: 1,2,3
Apr 28 Chapters 7,8 5P: 2,3,4,5,11,13,15
Quiz #4 6P: 1,3,4,12,27,28,36,46,52
7CTQ: 1,6,8
8CTQ: 1,2,3,11
May 5 Chapter 9 7P: 2,3,4,5,17,19,23
Quiz #5 8P: 1,2,5,9,10,17,19
9CTQ: 1,2,6
May 12 Chapter 10 9P: 2,4,10,11,12,17
Quiz #6 10CTQ: 1,2,8,10
May 19 Chapters 11,12 10P: 1,3,7,9,10,11,12,13
Quiz #7 11CTQ: 2,3,4
12CTQ: 4,8
May 26 Chapters 13,14 11P: 1,3,4,20,21
Quiz #8 12P: 1,2,4
13CTQ: 3,4
14CTQ: 1
13P: 3,6,17
14P: 1,6,9a
June 2 Review
June 9 Final

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