Custom «Case Introduction to Executive Tools» Essay Paper Sample

Introduction

Publicly traded companies are business firms which offer their stocks in an open market for trading particularly on various stock exchanges and over the counter markets. In respect to the amount of stock the individual or institution shareholders have, they become the part owners of publicly traded companies. Therefore, the shareholders automatically become the ultimate decision makers principally during their annual general meetings. Publicly traded companies are also referred as public companies.

The United States’ LKD Solar, Nike, Starbucks among others companies are examples of the publicly traded firms. Nike is a key publicly traded company dealing with sport ware and equipment seller located in United States. It is a top supplier of athletic shoes. Likewise, Nike products are sold worldwide. Almost all products are supplied by an autonomous producer. Apart from athletic shoes and apparel, the company also supplies Nike and Bauer brand athletic equipment, Cole Haan brand dress and casual footwear as well as the sport specialties line of headwear featuring licensing team logos. Nike was founded in 1962 as an imaginative product of Philip H.Knight, a Stanford University business graduate.

LDK Solar Co. Ltd. is a manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers, which are the principal raw material used to produce solar cells. It is a manufacturer of solar wafers in terms of capacity and solar modules which are the main important raw materials for manufacturing solar cells. The company is based in Xinyu city of Jiangxi province in Republic of China. It is actually cost saving over the other competitors like Hemlock Semiconductors which is based in Michigan. Due to cheap labor in China, LDK company managers to reduce its production cost. Starbucks Company has been positioned as the highest roaster of quality Arabic coffee in the world.

Findings

Using the liquidity ratios we can tell whether a company is in a position to pay its current debts. To get the liquidity ratio we divide the current assets by current liabilities, therefore it is mathematically represented as

Liability ratio   =   Current assets/ current liabilities

Nike Company’s liquidity ratio:  current assets are 9,765.60 as at 2009 November while the current liabilities are 2,798.30; therefore the ratio is 3.49 hence the company is in apposition to repay its current debts since the figure is greater than 1.

Starbucks company’s liquidity ratios: current assets are 2,035.8 as at September 2009 and its current liabilities 1,581.0, therefore its ratio is 1.29 which also symbolizes that it can repay its current debts on time since the figure is greater than 1.

LDK Solar Company’s liquidity rations: current assets are 1,386,445 as at December 2009 and its current liabilities are 2,220,026. Therefore its liquidity ratio is 0.62 which symbolizes that the company is not able to repay its current debts, thus the company is not in a good shape as compared to the other two companies (Bull, 2008).

Comparing the companies operation for the three years concurrently from 2007 to 2009, it shows that the companies’ operations are increasing in terms of investment. This can be evidenced by the exhaustive financial information provided below as extracted from each of company’s annual financial reports.

1. Company’s cash flows for three years running from 2007 to 2009 which are quoted in United States dollars

Total Cash Flows from Financing Activities (642,200)    (184,500)    (171,887)

Nike Company

Year                                                                     2009                2008       2007                     

Total Cash Flows from Financing Activities                  -733.9            -1,226.1   -1,111.5

LDK Solar Company

 Year                                                                     2009                2008            2007                     

 Total Cash Flows from Financing Activities                  907,315         1,087,698   462,324  

2. The changes on current assets reflected on the balance sheet descending from 2009 to 2007 which are quoted in United States dollars are as follows:

LDK Solar Company

Year                                                                        2009       2008             2007

 Total non current Liabilities                                        1,324,785      10,686,865    94,901

Star Bucks Company

Year                                                                          2009          2008             2007

Total non current Liabilities                                           950,100      992,000       904,195

Nike Company

Year                                                                           2009        2008             2007

Total non current Liabilities                                          1279.2        1294.5          1078.6

Following the above information Nike Company is ranked as the most performing public company among the three listed publicly traded companies. This is because by looking at the liquidity ratios we realize that Nike Company has the highest hence its financial position is the best. The following company is Starbuck Company which has the second best results according to the liquidity ratio. Finally LDK solar company is ranged the last among the three companies which is simply shown by the liquidity ration. Therefore, Nike is ranged as A, while Starbuck is ranged as B and LDK Solar is ranged as C. In summary the earlier calculated ratios are as follows:

LDK Solar Company’s Liquidity Ratio is 0.62

Starbuck Company’s Liquidity Ratio is 1.29

Nike Company’s Liquidity Ratio is 3.49

 The financial information below shows the stockholders equity which can also be used to reflect the performance of the three rated public companies. The quoted figures are in United States dollars.

In order to get the average stockholders’ equity, we attain by summing up the beginning stockholders’ equity and the ending stockholders’ equity. After getting the totals we then divide the figure by two or by subtracting total liabilities from total assets (Bull, 2008).

Stockholder’s equity is the balance sheet section which represents the capital received from investors in trade for stock. It actually reflects the equity stake currently held by companies’ investors.

LDK Solar Company

Year                                                                           2009               2008             2007

Total Stockholder Equity                                            839,425             775,908         693,071 

Nike Company

Year                                                                            2009                2008           2007

Total Liabilities & Shareholders’ Equity                          13,249.6           12,442.7       10,688.3

Starbuck Company

Year                                                                               2009          2008            2007

Total Stockholder Equity                                             3,045,700       2,490,900    2,284,117