Financial Management

Students will learn in this class how the decisions of a company affect shareholder value and what decisions can increase it. To understand the perspectives of shareholders, we will study basic principles of investing: time value of money, valuation of debt and equity securities, discounted cash flow as a foundation for stock prices, the impacts of diversification and leverage on portfolio risk, the relationship between risk and expected return in securities markets, and capital market efficiency. We will use these principles to analyze capital investment decisions by estimating cash flows and discounting them at the appropriate cost of capital. We will also study how shareholder value is affected by a firm's financing decisions, such as the choice of using debt or equity capital.