FIN 570

Credit: 4 hours.

You will learn how to use key finance principles to understand and measure business success as well as identify and promote true value creation. You will also learn financial management tools that allow us to determine the optimal financing and risk management strategies for corporations. In the first part of the course, you will learn how to use accounting information to form key financial ratios to measure a company’s financial health and to manage a company's short-term and long-term liquidity needs. You will also learn how to use valuation techniques to make sound business investment and acquisition decisions. Finally, you will learn how to incorporate risk and uncertainty into investment decisions and evaluate the performance of existing investments. In the second part of the course, you will learn how companies choose how much debt to have and which type of debt to issue. You will also learn how payout decisions (dividends and share repurchases) affect firm value and how to determine a company’s optimal payout policy. Finally, you will learn how to use risk management tools, such as derivatives, and liquidity to mitigate specific risks, such as currency risk. You will apply these tools to develop a financial management framework for M&A decisions, and R&D investments.

Credit is not given for FIN 570 if the student has received credit for FIN 584 Corporate Finance I and II (41321, 41322). Prerequisite: Enrollment is often restricted to students in specialized programs.