Each member should prepare a report detailing the following information about his or her chosen...

TEAM-BUILDING SKILLS (AACSB)

Looking for a High-Flying Stock

Congratulations! Your team has just been awarded $100,000 in hypothetical capital. There is, however, a catch: you have to spend the money on airline stocks. Rather than fly by the seat of your pants, you’ll want to research a number of stocks. To familiarize yourself with the airline industry,and read the article: “2010 Airline Industry Economic Perspective.”

Each team member is responsible for researching and writing a brief report on a different company. Don’t duplicate your research. Be sure to include low-cost airlines as well as larger carriers. To cover the industry, pick airlines from the following list. The URLs bring you to each airline’s information page on Yahoo! Finance. If any of the links listed below do not work, you can get to that airline’s page by doing the following: Go to under “Investing” on the top bar, select “Industries”

from the drop-down list. Then click on “Complete Industry List” on left sidebar. Under “Services” click on “Major Airlines” and then “Company Index” to find the first four airlines listed below (AMR/American, Delta, U.S. Airways, and Spirit); click on “Regional Airlines” to find the remaining two airlines (Jet Blue and Southwest).

• AMR Corporation (American Airlines) (://biz.yahoo.com/ic/10/10021.html)
• Delta Air Lines
• U.S. Airways
• Spirit Airlines
• Jet Blue Airways
• Southwest Airlines

Each member should prepare a report detailing the following information about his or her chosen company:

• A description of the airline
• The percentage change in revenue over the last fiscal year
• The percentage change in net income over the last fiscal year
• A chart comparing the movement in the company’s stock price over the past year with the movement of the DJIA
• Current earnings per share (EPS): net income divided by number of common shareholders
• Current PE ratio
• Current stock price

 

Here are some hints for finding this information on the Yahoo! page devoted to a given company:

• The company will be described in a “Company Profile” appearing toward the top of the page.
• You can get the remaining information by going to the bottom of the page and clicking on the following:
• “Financials” for changes in revenues and net income
• “Chart” for trends in stock prices
• “Quote” for EPS, PE ratio, and current stock price
• When reviewing financial statements to calculate percentage changes in revenues and net income, be sure you click on “Annual Data” to get information for the entire year rather than for just the quarter.