CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY-LONG BEACH

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, REAL ESTATE & LAW

Summer III, 2004

FINANCE 300: BUSINESS FINANCE

Tuesday & Thursday Afternoons, 1:00 – 4:45, CBA 235

 

Instructor:  Peter A. Ammermann, Ph.D.

Office:  CBA-328

Phone:  (562) 985-7526

E-mail: pammerma@csulb.edu

Website: http://www.csulb.edu/~pammerma

Office Hours:  Tuesday and Thursday: 12:15 p.m. – 12:45 p.m., 10:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m., or by appointment.

 

Course Description:  This course provides a broad background of the concepts and practices of contemporary finance. Topics include the purpose of finance, financial information and decision making, time value of money, methods of financing business operations, bond and stock evaluation, risk and rates of return, asset and liability management and multinational issues.  The perspective for the first part of the course is closer to that of an outside investor, while the latter part of the course adopts the perspective of the financial manager.

 

Required Text:  Fundamentals Of Financial Management (10th Ed.), by E. F. Brigham and J. F. Houston (Harcourt: 2004).

                                                                       

Additional Recommended Reading:  

Study Guide, by Brigham, Houston, and Clark (Dryden Press: 1998).

The Wall Street Journal  (Note: a subscription gets you access to the WSJ interactive website.) 

Forbes, Fortune, and/or Business Week.

                                                           

Calculators:  You will need a financial calculator, such as the Hewlett-Packard 17, 10, or 12 series, or the Texas Instruments BA II, for this course.  Financial calculators are necessary for many of the calculations that will be required in this class, and they will make your life easier for any future Finance courses you might take.  Please bring your calculator to class each meeting, and use them frequently. You will be much happier on exams. 

 

Course Objective:  To provide students with the principal theoretical concepts and basic analytical tools of corporate financial management.  The course is designed to lay a solid foundation in the area of financial management for both finance and non-finance business majors. 

 

Prerequisites:  IS 310

 

Class Procedures:

 

1.      Your success in this class will have a direct relationship to the amount of reading and preparation you do.  The lectures and exercises will concentrate on the major and more difficult concepts involved in the text.  If you have read over and familiarized yourself with the assigned chapter prior to lecture, your understanding of the discussion will be greatly enhanced.

2.      Attendance will be taken randomly.  Some of the exam questions will come from class discussions.

3.      Part of your grade for the class will be based on group homework projects, including participation in the Virtual Stock Exchange.  Groups for this project must be chosen by the end of the second class period. 

4.      Knowledge of current business news will be assumed and drawn upon frequently.  Frequent reading of the Wall Street Journal, and viewing of financial news programs is strongly recommended.

5.      The course builds as it goes along.  Make sure you do not get lost early, or you will have great difficulty catching up.  If you don’t understand the early material, please feel free to take advantage of office hours, and ask!!

6.      Additional homework from both the text and the study guide will be suggested but neither graded nor collected.  There will be a high correlation between homework attempted and success on exams.  It is up to you.  Some homework suggestions and solutions will be provided.

7.      The university policy on academic dishonesty will be strictly followed.

 

Performance Evaluation: 

Component

Percentage

Three Mini- Exams (lowest exam is dropped)

45

Group Homework Projects and Cases

25

Final Exam

30

Total

100

 

The component elements of the grade will be assigned on the basis of a 4.0 scale:

 

A  =  4.0

B  =  3.0

C  =  2.0

D  =  1.0

F   =  0.0

 

Performance Evaluation (Cont.): 

1.      Based upon the ranges of actual grade outcomes, final grades may be curved. 

2.      There will be three mini-exams given throughout the term, with the lowest exam being dropped. These exams will be multiple-choice.  On each test, the approximate division of types of questions will be 50% conceptual and 50% problem-solving.  These tests will not be specifically comprehensive, but will assume skills and knowledge from prior sections. 

3.      The final exam will be comprehensive.

 

Tentative Course Schedule: 

Week

Chapters

Topic

1

1

Introduction and Overview

1

2

Financial Statements

2

3

Analysis of Financial Statements (Ratio Analysis)

2

17

Financial Planning and Forecasting

2

4

The Financial Environment

3

5

Risk and Rates of Return

3

6

Time Value of Money

4

7

Bonds and their Valuation

4

8

Stocks and their Valuation

4

9

Cost of Capital

5

10

Basics of Capital Budgeting

5

11

Cash Flow Estimation and Risk Analysis

6

13

Capital Structure and Leverage

6

19

Multinational Financial Management

6

 

Final Exam

 

 

Notes:

1.      There is a lot of material to cover (required by the department final), so we will have to cover a couple of chapters per week. 

2.      The first mini-exam is planned for the Thursday of the 2nd week, the second for Tuesday of the 4th week, and third for Thursday of the 5th week.

3.      Adding or dropping/withdrawing from a class should comply with the University and College of Business Administration policies and rules.

4.      The contents of this syllabus may be subject to change if circumstances require. If such changes do occur, they will be announced in class and posted on the website.