Major Project—Group Component
Hello, dear friend, you can consult us at any time if you have any questions, add WeChat: THEend8_
ACCT5910 Major Project—Group Component
Detailed Instructions
Task Description
You are an equity research analyst. You are required to conduct in-depth valuation analysis on a
company (either Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) or IDP Education Ltd (ASX: IEL)) and issue your
investment recommendation for the company’s stocks. Please note that this is a group assessment, and
each member of a group shall contribute equally to the project and receive the same assessment result,
unless there is evidence that certain member(s) of the group fail to make adequate contribution.
Specifically, you are required to complete the following tasks (with grading weights in the parentheses):
• Task 1: Identify and discuss the THREE most important investment themes of the stock. These
themes may include, but not limited to, a particular strategic action the company is taking, an
important government policy that affect the company, OR a significant event that yields great
implications for the company’s success, etc. Discuss how these investment themes may be
manifested in the company’s financial statement numbers (e.g. ratios) or other forms of
disclosures. (30% of the assessment)
• Task 2: Conduct full pro forma analysis and forecast the company’s financial statements 5 years
out. Explicitly state and justify all assumptions made. Present your forecasted financial
statements. (30% of the assessment)
• Task 3: Use the abnormal earnings (i.e., residual income) valuation model to estimate the value
of the company’s stock. You may choose to use either the equity version or the enterprise
version of the valuation model. Explicitly state and justify all assumptions made. Perform
sensitivity analysis. Produce your investment recommendation to your client. (40% of the
assessment)
Submission Guidelines
• You must submit your individual report through the Turnitin link on the course Moodle page
• This assessment accounts for 25% of your total course grade.
• The maximum number of pages assessed is fifteen (15), inclusive of all texts, tables, figures,
references, and appendices.
• A4 page setup is required. No cover page should be used.
• All texts must be formatted using Times New Roman font, size 11 and 1.5 spacing.
• The group report is due by 3pm, Friday 14th April (end of Week 9).
• The submitted file must be in PDF format and the file name should be formatted
as: “_SeminarTimeACCT5910_Group_Project. pdf”.
• Only ONE submission per group is allowed. Each group must choose one student to submit
for the whole group. If duplicate submissions are found, the first submission will be marked,
and a 10% penalty on this assessment will apply to all members of the group.
Tips and Hints
Task 1
You may start from the main points from all group members’ responses to Task 1 of their individual
reports. Focus on the most important three investment themes and provide deep-dive analysis rather
than generic coverage.
Task 2 &3
You may adapt the templates provided throughout the course to structure your spreadsheets. Creative
use of alternative forecasting tools or methods is welcome. References to recent stock price levels and
movements must be made to justify your investment recommendation. Make sure your recommendation
is actionable and unambiguous.
Marking Criteria
Relevance and specificity (30%)
Your responses must directly answer the questions and appropriate methods and information sources.
The arguments used must be specific to the case, free of generic comments.
Analytical Rigor (30%)
Predictions and explanations must be supported by hard facts, statistics, and tight logical reasoning.
All calculations and derivations are accurate and clearly documented.
Research Depth and Breadth (20%)
Your report should reflect extensive research into corporate disclosures and other sources of
information.
Exposition (20%)
The writing should be free of spelling or grammatical errors. The language should be concise and
clear. All tables and figures are professionally annotated and presented. References are appropriately
made to external data or analysis.