FIN 301Corporation Finance

3 credits · Finance · Penn State

This course provides a basic understanding and framework of how firms acquire, allocate, and control their financial resources. It covers the acquisition and management of corporate capital; analysis of operations, forecasting capital requirements, raising capital, and planning profits. This is a core finance course focusing on basic financial principles and practices essential to managing a business. In addition, this course also covers financial markets, institutions, organizational forms and investments. It relies heavily on accounting and economic principles with a strong emphasis on problem solving and decision making. One objective of this course is to be able to assess the past and present performance of the firm. This can be achieved through vertical and horizontal analysis of the financial statements as well as ratio analysis. Another aspect of this course is the financial planning process. This includes concepts such as pro forma statements, developing the statement of cash flows, as well as the budgeting process through the preparation of the cash budget. Another facet of this class is to understand how financing and investment decisions are made. Students will learn about the time value of money as well as fundamental techniques for valuing financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Additionally, capital budgeting techniques such as the net present value and internal rate of return are explained. Other important objectives include the management of working capital, the determination of the cost of capital, operating and financial leverage, and risk and return. The concepts and tools covered in this class allow the student to gain a fundamental understanding of how the finance function works within the business environment. The course promotes critical thinking and will enable the student to better integrate the individual functions of a business in order to make good business decisions. A student may receive credit toward graduation for only one of the following; BA 301 , FIN 100 , FIN 301 , or FIN 301H .