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Marketable securities

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Assignment 1: Investment Selection
Due Week 4 and worth 80 points

Imagine that you are a potential investor researching a U.S. investment of your choice. Your choice can be any investment that is highly marketable, which means that you must be able to sell it at a market price very easily. Publically traded stock, corporate bonds, government bonds, real estate, mutual funds, and derivatives are all examples of highly marketable investments.
You will be required to collect financial statements and /or relevant financial information that detail(s) the past three (3) years (fiscal or calendar) of the chosen investment. (These statements can usually be located within the organization’s Website under “investor information” or something similar. Many times, these statements can also be found on Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, MSN Money, or Hoovers.)
You will also be required to research your chosen investment’s price for the past five (5) years, as well as a related market index for this investment for the past five (5) years. An example of an applicable market index is the Standard & Poor’s Stock Market Index, commonly called the S&P 500.

  • Select the highly marketable investment that you wish to research.
  • Provide a brief (one [1] paragraph) explanation as to why you selected that particular investment.
  1. List five (5) resources to demonstrate that there is enough information available regarding your selected investment.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

  • Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
  • Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

  • Use technology and information resources to research issues in investments.
  • Write clearly and concisely about investments using proper writing mechanics.

 

 

 

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

Points: 80 Assignment 1: Investment Selection
Criteria  

Unacceptable
Below 60% F

 Meets Minimum Expectations
60-69% D		  

Fair
70-79% C

  

Proficient
80-89% B

  

Exemplary
90-100% A
1. Select the highly marketable investment that you wish to research.
Weight: 20%		 Did not submit or incompletely selected the highly marketable investment that you wish to research. Insufficiently selected the highly marketable investment that you wish to research. Partially selected the highly marketable investment that you wish to research. Satisfactorily selected the highly marketable investment that you wish to research. Thoroughly selected the highly marketable investment that you wish to research.
2. Provide a brief (one [1] paragraph) explanation as to why you selected that particular investment.
Weight: 40%		 Did not submit or incompletely provided a brief (one [1] paragraph) explanation as to why you selected that particular investment. Insufficiently provided a brief (one [1] paragraph) explanation as to why you selected that particular investment. Partially provided a brief (one [1] paragraph) explanation as to why you selected that particular investment. Satisfactorily provided a brief (one [1] paragraph) explanation as to why you selected that particular investment. Thoroughly provided a brief (one [1] paragraph) explanation as to why you selected that particular investment.
3. List five (5) resources to demonstrate that there is enough information available regarding your selected investment.
Weight: 30%		 Did not submit or incompletely listed five (5) resources to demonstrate that there is enough information available regarding your selected investment. Insufficiently listed five (5) resources to demonstrate that there is enough information available regarding the selected investment. Partially listed five (5) resources to demonstrate that there is enough information available regarding your selected investment. Satisfactorily listed five (5) resources to demonstrate that there is enough information available regarding your selected investment. Thoroughly listed five (5) resources to demonstrate that there is enough information available regarding your selected investment.
4. Clarity, writing mechanics, and formatting requirements
Weight: 10%		 More than 8 errors present 7-8 errors present 5-6 errors present 3-4 errors present 0-2 errors present

 

 

Category:

Description

 

Marketable securities offer investors the opportunity to develop a profitable portfolio. A marketable security is a debt or equity instrument that possesses significant liquidity in the sense that it can easily be resold in the securities market (Investopedia). The key to any profitable investment lies in making the right choices during investment selection. As a potential investor, my choice is the publicly traded stock of 3M Company. Not only has this stock shown successively increasing price performance over the past three years, but it has maintained relatively higher earnings per share compared to its close competitors.

3M Company maintains a global presence as a diversified technology company operating within the industrial goods sector of the diversified machinery industry (YAHOO Finance, 2015). According to trading figures from the New York Stock Exchange, this company has consistently exhibited growth in market stock price with the latest valuation being 156 US Dollars per share as of 22nd October 2015 (The Wall Street Journal, 2015). A look at the company’s stock price over the past 5 years shows a pattern of steady increase. From USD 87.93 in 2011, the price took a slight dip in 2012, closing in at USD 85.13 (3M Company). This slip in market price was reversed in 2013 when the stock averaged at USD 97.96, from which point it took a remarkable upward trend clocking USD 134.80 in 2014 (3M Company). It is important to note that this pattern has been maintained throughout this year.

In terms of market index performance, the S & P 500 Index, of which 3M Company stock forms a component, has shown a more or less comparable performance over the five-year period under review. As of December 2011, the index stood at 1257.64 (Bloomberg Business). A slight drop of 0.04 was observed in the following year. 2013 saw the index rise to 1402.43, which figure rose further to 1831.37 in January of 2014 (Bloomberg Business). This trend has endured, with the current figure standing at 2052.51.

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