What You'll Learn
Welcome to Financial Statement Analysis: Fundamental Ratio Analysis, a practical online course designed to increase your ability to extract, interpret, and use information from financial statements. We will emphasize the understanding, organizing, and summarizing of financial data for decision-making purposes.
Rice University’s online business courses provide a convenient, yet interactive and hands-on, way to learn or brush up on the practical skills needed to analyze corporate financial statements.
Taught by an industry professional from Rice Business, learners will explore the financial analysis journey, from extracting firm specific financial information to conducting an advanced DuPont analysis. Through a combination of engaging lectures, practical case studies, and hands-on exercises, students will gain invaluable insights into the principles and best practices that will allow them to confidently examine firm financial information and use it to analyze the firm’s position and performance.
This is the first course in a two-course Financial Statement Analysis series. Learners may continue with Course 2, Financial Statement Analysis: Company Forecasts and Valuations, which focuses on forecasting and equity valuation.
Who Should Enroll
- Financial professionals and analysts working in finance, accounting or corporate roles who need to master or refresh financial statement and ratio analysis skills.
- Aspiring investors and analysts who want to extract, interpret and use corporate financial data to make informed decisions.
- Executive and management professionals who need to analyze a firm’s financial health, performance and position to guide strategic business decisions.
- Individuals with foundational accounting knowledge seeking practical, hands-on application to real-world financial statement analysis.
You Will Be Able To
- Explain how the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows work together to describe a company’s financial position and performance.
- Identify key information within financial reports and external disclosures that helps explain a firm’s operating environment and strategy.
- Distinguish between operating and non-operating components of financial statements to better evaluate core business performance.
- Calculate and interpret key financial metrics to identify deviations from expectations and generate insights about firm performance.
- Evaluate a firm’s financial performance by analyzing trends over time and comparing results to relevant industry peers.
Meet Your Rice Professor
Brian Akins is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Rice Business. He teaches financial accounting in the full-time and professional MBA programs and the Ph.D. program. His research focuses on financial reporting quality and the impact of accounting in debt and equity market settings. Dr. Akins earned his Ph.D. in accounting from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds an MBA from Rice University.
Questions? Contact Kelcie Wold.
Please e-mail kelcie.wold@rice.edu.