FW Olin Graduate School of Business

Babson College

 

ACC7500 - Advanced Financial Accounting and
Financial Statement Analysis
Fall, 2005

 

Professor Bob Halsey

302 Luksic Hall

Phone: 781.239.4347 (O)      

             978.264.0892 (H)

E-mail: halsey@babson.edu

 

The objective of this course is to build upon the concepts introduced in the introductory financial accounting course in order to provide you with a more thorough understanding of generally accepted accounting principles that are the foundation for corporate financial reporting, and to sharpen the skills you will need to analyze and interpret financial statements effectively. Some of the topics we will cover in the course are off-balance sheet financing (including SPEs. n/k/a VIEs), derivatives, intercorporate investments and acquisitions, equity carve-outs, employee stock options, foreign currency translation gains (losses), leases, pensions, and deferred taxes. We will also delve more deeply into the topic of earnings management and discuss techniques commonly utilized in the valuation of common stock. The footnotes to the financial statements contain a wealth of information. By the end of the course, you will be comfortable reading and dissecting the information contained in these footnotes.

 

The text book for the course is Financial Statement Analysis 8th edition by Wild, Subramanyam, and Halsey, McGraw Hill (ISBN 0-07-253651-9).  Reading assignments and all other course materials are conveniently located on the course page in Babson’s e-campus (http://blackboard.babson.edu/), including mini-cases, other assigned readings, and instructional power point slides relating to the assigned material. A word about homework: I have written a number of mini-cases that are designed to introduce you to the material we will discuss in class. I expect you to have worked through these before class. The quality of the class discussion will determine how much you get out of the course.

 

Your grade for the course will be based on your performance on two exams, and a team company analysis project. I will use the following weightings:

 

                        Midterm exam                                     40%

                        Final exam                                            40

                        Company analysis project                   20

                                                                                    100

 


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