GRA 6220 Corporate Valuation

GRA 6220 Corporate Valuation

Course code: 
GRA 6220
Department: 
Accounting and Operations Management
Credits: 
6
Course coordinator: 
Sverre Dyrnes
Erlend Kvaal
Course name in Norwegian: 
Corporate Valuation
Product category: 
Master
Portfolio: 
Master of Accounting and Auditing
Semester: 
2018 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching language: 
Norwegian/English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

The main objective of this course is to provide students with the tools to carry out a business valuation using residual income valuation techniques.

We study the actual financial statements of publicly-traded companies in the assignments that we discuss in class. The course combines accounting principles and investment principles to answer the question: How do I account for value so that I can challenge stock prices with some confidence?

Learning outcomes - Knowledge

The student will through the course acquire the competence to apply business valuation models that use accounting numbers and to write a thorough, credible valuation report that meets the highest standards. 

Learning outcomes - Skills

The students will learn how to prepare a thorough valuation analysis including sensitivity analysis on the key assumptions; understand the factors determining quality of accounting information from an investor perspective and demonstrate written communication skills in relation to the analysis of company financial statement information from a valuation perspective.

Learning Outcome - Reflection

By the end of the course students should be able to answer to the following questions:

  • How are fundamental values (or “intrinsic values”) estimated?
  • How does one pull apart the financial statements to get at the relevant information for valuing equities?
  • What is the relevance of cash-flows? Of dividends? Of earnings? Of book values? How are these measures treated in a valuation
  • What is growth? How does one analyze growth? How does one value a growth firm? What are the pitfalls in buying growth?
  • How does one challenge the growth expectations implicit in stock prices?
  • How does ratio analysis help in valuation? What determines a firm's P/E ratio? How does one calculate what the P/E should be? What determines a firm's market-to-book (P/B) ratio? How does one calculate what the P/B should be?
  • How does profitability tie into valuation?
  • How does one evaluate risk? For equity? For debt?
Course content
  • Introduction to investing and valuation
  • Accounting quality analysis
  • Recastng financial statements
  • Valuation using multiples
  • Residual income valuation models
  • Analysis of risk and return
  • Forecasting analysis
  • Writing an equity reserach report
Learning process and requirements to students

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on itslearning or text book.

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Qualifications

All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.

Required prerequisite knowledge

GRA 6225 Financial Statement Analysis or similar.

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Weight: 
30
Grouping: 
Group (1 - 3)
Duration: 
1 Week(s)
Comment: 
Assignment (mid-term paper)
Exam code: 
GRA62201
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Invigilation
Weight: 
70
Grouping: 
Individual
Support materials: 
  • BI-approved exam calculator
  • Simple calculator
  • Bilingual dictionary
Duration: 
3 Hour(s)
Comment: 
Final written examination with supervision
Exam code: 
GRA62202
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Exam organisation: 
Ordinary examination
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
Total weight: 
100
Sum workload: 
0

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.