CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, CHICO

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE & MARKETING

 

FINANCE 150: Survey of Finance

FALL 2004

Syllabus

 

 

Instructor:       Leslie Thengvall, M.S.A.

Office:              Tehama 453

Phone:             (530) 898-5138

FAX:                (530) 898-6360 (FNMK Dept.)

E-mail:             lthengvall@csuchico.edu

 

 

NOTE: Students who miss the first two class meetings without prior notification of their planned absence will be disenrolled.

 

Course Description

 

An introduction to financial management, providing a background in the areas of financial institutions, the time value of money, analysis of financial statements, working capital management, financial structure of the firm, capital budgeting, and related tools of financial analysis.

 

Course Prerequisites

 

            ·  Prerequisite: Intro to Financial Accounting (ACCT 015), not being taken concurrently.

            ·  Working knowledge of Excel and Word.

            ·  A working knowledge of college algebra is strongly recommended.

 

Texts, Readings, and Materials

 

Required:         Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, Brealey, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 4th ed., 2004.   

 

Regular readings in journals such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, etc.

 

Financial calculator with the following time value of money functions: n, i, PV, FV, PMT, IRR, and NPV.  The student is required to become proficient in the use of his/her calculator.  The instructor will presume your working knowledge of your own calculator.  A Texas Instruments BAII Plus is recommended.  Calculators will be used to work homework and exam problems.  It is expected that the student will bring the calculator to each class session.

 

Optional:          Study Guide to Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, Will, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 4th ed., 2004.  A copy is on reserve at the library.

 

http://www.mhhe.com/bmm4e features e-Learning sessions with fully interactive study sessions.  Also included in an Online Tutor to help with concepts of difficulty to students.

 

All PowerPoint presentation slides are available via the class WebCT at http://online.csuchico.edu.  In addition, important class information may be posted at this site.  The student should check it regularly. 

Course Objective

 

The course objective is to introduce the student to the fundamental theories and practices applied to practical situations which require decisions by the typical financial manager in a nonfinancial (manufacturing or service) firm.  The course is designed primarily for the student who has had no previous course work in finance and will provide satisfactory background for students who elect to study Business in more advanced courses.

At the end of this class, you should . . .

·  Know the role of the financial manager and the financial markets in which the manager operates.

·  Know valuation, the concept that drives financial decisions.

·  Understand the concepts of risk and return.

 

Course Structure

 

Lecture:           Basic concepts will be summarized in the lecture.  The student is expected to respond to questions on the readings, assignments, and current discussion topics.  This is intended to minimize the amount of actual lecture time used by the instructor.  The actual lecture portion of the class will give ample opportunity for questions and discussion.

 

Class Preparation: All assignments (reading and written) should be completed before the class period for which they are assigned.  Students should be prepared to discuss the assigned reading material and problem solutions.  The instructor will not collect homework assignments unless it is specifically announced, but will provide the student with a basis for his/her participation in class discussion, whether or not collected.

 

                        The student should bring the text to each class meeting, as it will be referred to frequently in class discussion.

 

Attendance:     The student will benefit by regular attendance in the class.  It is the responsibility of the student to obtain any class notes and assignments given in his/her absence.  The student should check his WebCT e-mail account at least weekly, as the instructor will use this to communicate any changes or updates to the syllabus or particular assignments.

 

Grading:          The semester grade for this course will be determined as follows:

                                                                                    Grade              Points Needed

                        3 exams @ 20%            60%                    A                         94%+

                        6 quizzes                      20%                    A-                        90-93%

                        5 article reviews             20%                    B+                       87-89%

                                    Total                100%                    B                         83-86%

B-                                       80-82%, etc.

 

Article Reviews: During the semester, the student is required to read one or more of the business journals suggested above on a regular basis.  The student will choose five articles of interest throughout the semester on which to write a one-page review.  Articles must be at least one full newspaper column or one-page minimum.  The student will read the article thoroughly, then prepare a summary in the format shown at the end of this syllabus.  No handwritten work will be accepted.   Specific dates are listed on the Tentative Course Schedule to turn in the reviews.  No late submissions will be accepted, but early submissions are acceptable.

 

The student will submit these article reviews to Turnitin.com, which will screen them for plagiarism.  You can create your class account by going to http://www.turnitin.com and clicking on the “Create a User Profile” link in the upper right hand corner of the home page.  This will take you to Step One where you will select “student”.  In Step Two, you will need to type in XXXXXXX for the class ID and FIN150 for the class enrollment password.  In Step Three, you will create your user profile and choose a password.  Turnitin’s database contains over 4.5 billion pages of Web information in addition to all student work that is submitted.  Please be careful to properly credit your sources and also to guard your work so that it is not misused by others in this or subsequent semesters.  You will also submit a hard copy of your work to the instructor, and must include a copy of the article you read. 

 

 

Miscellaneous Notes

 

· Quizzes may be announced or unannounced.  The lowest of the six quiz scores will be dropped. 

 

· Exams will not be cumulative, except where prior material is integral to the current material.  Exams will consist of a combination of objective questions (e.g. multiple choice, matching, etc.) and short problems/essays.  Scantrons will be required.  The student should bring a No. 2 pencil and financial calculator to each exam.

 

·  In certain circumstances, if the student is aware of a serious conflict with an exam time, he or she may make arrangements to take the exam at an earlier time.  The instructor must be notified of this conflict at least two weeks in advance of the scheduled exam.  No makeup or advance quizzes will be given.  A missed quiz will be the one dropped.  Note that finals week is part of the regular semester.  Students should not schedule plane, train or automobile departures prior to their scheduled final times.

 

·  No make-up exams will be offered.  If the student misses an exam and can offer documentation for a compelling excuse, the remaining exam grades will be reweighted to compensate for the missed exam.  Without a documented compelling excuse, the missed exam will count as a ‘0’.

 

·  No extra-credit work will be accepted.

 

·  Assignments which are not turned in when collected will not be accepted late.

 

·  Students are expected to maintain the ethical standards set by the University in the University catalogue on page 47.  Students found cheating on any quiz or exam or appropriating another’s work will be referred to Student Judicial Affairs.  Penalty for these offenses can result, at a minimum, in receiving an ‘F’ in the course.

 

·  Graded exams will be reviewed in class and must be returned to the instructor before leaving the classroom.  Failure to return the exam prior to leaving the classroom will result in a referral to Student Judicial Affairs for unethical behavior.

 

·  All unretrieved work will be thrown away after the second semester following the end of this course.

 

·  This syllabus is subject to change without notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

 

 

 

 

 

Date
Reading

Topic

Assignment

M 8/23

-----

Introduction; review of syllabus

 

W 8/25

Ch. 1

The Firm and the Financial Manager

 

F 8/  F 8/27

Ch. 1, 2

The Financial Environment

 

 

 

 

 

M 8/30

Ch. 2

     "              "               "

 

W 9/1

Ch. 3

Accounting and Finance

 

F 9/3

"

     "              "               "

 

 

 

 

 

M 9/6

Labor Day

 

 

W 9/8

"

     "              "               "

 

F 9/10

Ch. 17

Financial Statement Analysis

Article Review #1

 

 

 

 

M 9/13

"

     "              "               "

 

W 9/15

"

     "              "               "

 

F 9/17

"

     "              "               "

 

 

 

 

 

M 9/20

Ch. 19

Working Capital Management and Short-Term Planning

 

W 9/22

"

     "              "               "

 

F 9/24

"

     "              "               "

Article Review #2

 

 

 

 

M 9/27

MIDTERM #1--

Chapters 1-3, 17, 19

 

W 9/29

Ch. 4

Time Value of Money

 

F 10/1

"

     "              "               "

 

 

 

 

 

M 10/4

"

     "              "               "

 

W 10/6

"

     "              "               "

 

F 10/8

Ch. 5

Valuing Bonds

 

 

 

 

 

M 10/11

"

     "              "               "

 

W 10/13

"

     "              "               "

 

F 10/15

Ch. 6

Valuing Stocks

Article Review #3

 

 

 

 

M 10/18

"

     "              "               "

 

W 10/20

"

     "              "               "

 

F 10/22

Ch. 7

Net Present Value and Other Investment Criteria

 

 

 

 

 

M 10/25

"

     "              "               "

 

W 10/27

"

     "              "               "

 

F 10/29

"

     "              "               "

Article Review #4

 

 

 

 

M 11/1

MIDTERM #2--

Chapters 4-7

 

W 11/3

Ch. 10

Introduction To Risk, Return, and the Opportunity Cost of Capital

 

F 11/5

"

     "              "               "

 

 

 

 

 

M 11/8

"

     "              "               "

 

W 11/10

"

     "              "               "

 

F 11/12

Ch. 11

Risk, Return & Capital Budgeting

 

 

 

 

 

M 11/15

"

     "              "               "

 

W 11/17

"

     "              "               "

 

F 11/19

Ch. 12

The Cost of Capital

Article Review #5

Date
Reading

Topic

Assignment

11/22-11/26

  Thanksgiving

Break

 

 

 

 

 

M 11/29

"

     "              "               "

 

W 12/1

"

     "              "               "

 

F 12/3

"

     "              "               "

 

 

 

 

 

M 12/6

Ch. 13

An Overview of Corporate of Corporate Financing

 

W 12/8

"

     "              "               "

 

F 12/10

"

     "              "               "

 

 

 

 

 

12/13-12/17

            FINALS

WEEK; Final Exam, Chapters 10-13; time to be announced

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article Review Format

                                                                                               

Title of Article                                                                                        Student’s Name

Name of Journal                                                                                    Review #

Date of Publication

Main Topic

 

One to two paragraphs summarizing the contents of the article.

 

One to two paragraphs identifying the financial principals addressed by the article.

 

Font size no larger than 12 point.

 

One page maximum—make it count.