Free Essay About Ford Motor

The Form 10 - K is an invaluable resource for smart investors looking to ferret out details about the inner workings of a company's financial operations. It allows you to determine a company’s ability to stay in business, the organizational structure of a company (important for assessing takeover risk), any potential risks (such as litigation) to a company's long-term viability, whether a company’s financial statements accurately depict its financial position
Because the SEC has oversight authority on this report, many in the investment community consider it a clear look at the company's books.
The key sections of report to ferret out details on any red flags you might notice. The Business section offers a detailed description of the business the company partakes in both domestic and international operations. Here the description details any subsidiaries its owns as well as what the business does or what are its mains services and or products. The “Business” section also often contains news or an update section of the most recent developments that have taken place in company operations over the last fiscal year. This section provides a concise news update of the most outstanding activities of a company since the filing in the prior year (“How To Read A 10-K” 2015). Other major noteworthy sections are in “Selected Financial Data” and “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data”. These sections provide detailed financial information about company operations over the last 5 years. Investors can gain up to a complete profile of the company's finances with this detailed information. Using these figures, ratio analysis and other stock market prediction information can be derived. The section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” is another key area of the report. It is a narration from the company itself on its business performance over the past fiscal year. This section is commonly referred to as MD&A and provides a first person viewpoint on company operations from the mouths of management themselves (“How To Read A 10-K” 2015).
In reading Ford Motor Company's 2012 10-K, several things can be gleaned about its performance in this year. In the Business section, detailed information is given about the company's business and operations. This information discusses the Automotive and Financial sectors in which the company operates, including information about subsidiaries. This section in particularly interesting not only for its detailed analysis of global operations provided in separate section headings listed by country. It also includes an in-depth discussion of environmental protection legislation such as emissions standards that are at the front of Ford's business since they require automatic compliance once taken into effect (Ford Motor Company 2012). A further section is This section gives a more detailed window into what management sees as the main risks of the company, as well as how they interpret their own performance and financial results and what they view to the be the major threats or opportunities to expect in the short and medium term.(“How To Read A 10-K” 2015). Stakeholders such as investors can gain a clearer picture of the activities the company partakes in normal day-to-day operations. The Risks section illuminates the current internal and external factors that may interact with company performance. Reading this section gives a very good understanding of the most pressing issues car companies are facing. One concern Ford lists is health care insurance requirements for its pensioners (Ford Motor Company 2012). Risks are important for external and internal stakeholders to grasp since they are directly relevant to company profitability. References
Ford Motor Company (2012). 10-K 2012. Retrieved from Gale Business Insights Database.
“How To Read A 10-K” (2015). Securities and Exchange Comission. Retrieved from
http://www.sec.gov/answers/reada10k.htm