Question

Search on the internet for pro-forma financial statements of any large public company from last year. Compare these to the results by looking at the actual financial statements. Many times, the companies will list how they performed compared to their estimates. Write a paragraph about the expectations the company had along with how they actually did. Do you think they met expectations did or did not meet their expectations.

Answer 1

I selected the co. Macy's for this purpose. I was very surprised to see that Macy's projections were very close to their actual sales and expenses. Macy's pro forma income statements showed the percentage difference from the pro form and actual amounts. For the most part, the differences ranged from 1% to 3%. However, I did notice that the projected cost of sales was off by 60%. They had projected a higher cost of sales, but the actual ended up being less. I would agree that they met their expectations, being that their projections were off by a few percentages, except the cost of sales. However, I think it's important to build in a cushion and not overestimate operating income. Also, I feel that they meet their expectations because their projected operating income was only about 4% less than their actual.

even you can look at the projections of general motors For the purpose of this assignment, I will take the case of automobile manufacturer General Motors. For 2014, the company's results beat the expectations due to stronger margins. The strong performance in the last quarter of the financial year helped the company to beat analysts expectations despite several challenges faced by the company.

For actual earnings and forcasted numbers please visit the company's website and projections of any of the reputed corporate houses