INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 

•  Users of financial data 
•  Types of available financial information and the annual financial report
•  Content of the annual financial report and ways to read it
•  Non-financial elements of the annual financial report and their importance 
•  Understanding the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement 
•  Other comprehensive income components 
•  How to access data from Tadawul, ADX, DFM, Bloomberg and Yahoo! Finance

ASSESSING QUALITY OFFINANCIAL REPORTS

•  Framework for assessing company's quality of financial reports 
•  Potential problems that affect quality of financial reports 
•  Defining concept of sustainable and persistent earnings 
•  Beneish model: M-score to describe degree to which earnings are manipulated 
•  Evaluating the earnings quality of a company
•  Evaluating the cash flow quality of a company
•  Indicators of balance sheet quality 
•  Sources of information about risk 
•  Case study: analysis and interpretation of company performance 

BASICS OFINDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND ANALYZING RATIOS USING EXCEL 

•  Industry analysis: understanding Michael Porter's five forces shaping industry's long term profitability 
•  Common size analysis to improve comparability 
•  Calculating trends and growth patterns 
•  Ratio analysis to assess key aspects of company performance: − Profitability − Liquidity − Efficiency and working capital management − Financing structure and risk
•   Altman Z-score to assess potential bankruptcy
•   Using graphical representation 

INTEGRATION OFFINANCIAL STATEMENTS ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES 

•  Using a framework for financial statements analysis
•  Evaluating quality of a company's financial data 
•  Recommending adjustments to improve quality and comparability 
•  Case study: investment decision at Nestle

FINANCIAL COSMETICS AND CREATIVE ACCOUNTING 

•  Last In First Out (LIFO) versus First In First Out (FIFO) and the effect on profits and taxes
•  Explaining LIFO reserve and LIFO liquidation
•  Converting reported inventory from LIFO to LIFO for purposes of comparison 
•  Valuing inventory at net realizable value: looking for signals of obsolete inventory 
•  Analyst's consideration when examining inventory 
•  Evaluating how capitalizing versus expensing costs affect financial statements and ratios 
•  Effect of different depreciation methods on financial statements 
•  Impairment and revaluation of property, plant and equipment 
•  The choice of operating lease or finance lease
•  Using special purpose vehicles for balance sheet manipulation
•  Joint ventures: using equity method 
•  Consolidation: inflating goodwill by using full goodwill instead of partial goodwill method 
•  Employees' compensation: completeness of end-of-service indemnity obligation
•  Stock options and stock grants instead of bonuses 
•  Case study: creative accounting scandals of Enron, Worldcom, Parmala