Skills Test Answers - Financial Forecasting

Which of the following is an example of financial forecasting?

Tailing PE ratio
Forward PE ratio
PE ratio
Market capitalization



True or False? Bayes theorem is often used in financial forecasting.

False
True



True or False? The Bayesian Probablity method is used often for financial forecasting.

True
False



Which of the following pro forma statements is likely to be calculated first while forecasting financials?

Balance Sheet
Income Statement
Statement of Cash Flow
Statement of Retained Earnings



What are the two overarching financial forecasting approaches?

Average and Exponential
Qualitative and Quantitative
Rate Conversation and Sales Smoothing
Exponential and Qualitative



Which of the following balance sheet items is NOT likely to vary directly with changes in revenue?

Long-term Debt
Accounts Payable
Inventory
Accounts Receivable



What is the formula for compound interest?

(1+it) / (t)
(1+i)^t
(1+i) / (t)
(1+ it)



Which of the following is NOT a forecasted financial statement?

Pro forma Income Statement
Pro forma Statement of Financing
Pro forma Balance Sheet
Pro forma Statement of Cash Flows



Which type of security is used as a measurement of a low risk rate?

(none of these)
LIBOR
corporate bonds
government bonds



True of False? The longer the financial forecast, the more accurate it will be.

False
True



What is the discount rate often used in capital budgeting that makes the Net Present Value (NVP) of all cash flows from a particular project equal to zero:

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
Price to Earnings (P/E)
Rate of Asset Return (RAR)
Turnover Rate



What does EBIT stand for?

Earnings before Interest and Taxable Income
Earnings before Income and Tax
Earnings before Interest and Tax



Projected financial statements are called:

Pro Forma Financial Statements
Cash Budgets
Annual Reports
SEC 10K Filings



True or False? A Monte Carlo distribution could be a bell curve.

False
True



True or False? Verification is the process of comparing actual results and predicted results.

True
False



A security that has a beta of less than 1 has __________?

lower volatility than the market
higher volatility than the market



True or False? Financial forecasting can always predict future events.

False
True



Which of the following items would NOT be included in a cash budget?

Depreciation
Payments to Suppliers
Taxes
Cash receipts



True or False? Present value is the future amount of money that is discounted to today.

False
True



Company XYZ has a project that requires an immediate investment of $100,000 which management has calculated to have discounted cash inflows of $105,000. This project is:

Not acceptable, because it has a negative Profitability Index.
Acceptable, because it has a positive Net Present Value (NPV).
Not acceptable, because the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is negative.
Acceptable, because the Net Present Value (NPV) is equal to the required rate of return.



True of False? Forecasting future revenues is one of the most difficult aspects when preparing a financial forecast.

True
False



Management will use sensitivity analysis during financial forecasting to:

Analyze how previous financial forecasts performed versus actual company performance.
Analyze foreign economic conditions to determine currency risk.
Determine how different values of an independent variable will impact a particular dependent variable under a set of stated assumptions.
Determine the type of forecasting method to use.



True or False? The Monte Carlo method is often used in modeling.

True
False



What does DCF stand for?

Discounted Cash Financials
Discount Cash Flow
Discounted Cash Flow
Discount Cash Financial



Which of the following helps create a financial model?

growth rate
gross margin
expected tax rate
(All of these)



True or False? Dividend structure and Capital structure are crucial to financial models

True
False



Which equation is best for forecasting future sales?

Forecasted Sales = Current Sales(1 + Growth Rate)
Forecasted Sales = Current Sales(1 + Growth Rate)^2
Forecasted Sales = Current Sales(1 - Growth Rate)
Forecasted Sales = Current Sales + (1 + Growth Rate)



Which Method uses historical data as the basis of estimating future outcomes/information

Time Series
Econometric Forecasting Methods
Artificial Intelligence Methods
Judgmental Methods



True or False? The problem with Monte Carlo analysis is that you can only run one trial.

True
False



Which of the following capital budgeting techniques calculates the length of time required to recover the initial investment for a project?

Simple Rate of Return Method
Discounted Cash Flow Method
Internal Rate of Return Method
Payback Method



A company’s Sustainable Rate of Growth (SRG) is determined by which of the following:

SRG = ROE*(1 - Dividend Payout Ratio)
SRG = Net Income/Common Equity
SRG = Sales/Assets
SRG = Common Equity/Assets



A cash forecast is an estimate of future inflows of revenue and _______?

outflows of profits
outflows of expenses
inflows of expenses



True or False? A foward price-earning ratio is an example of financial forecasting.

False
True



The time series method:

gives less importance to extreme data points
most commonly used
takes into account several methods using past and current data
(All of these)



Which of the following items is NOT likely found on a capital budget?

Exisiting Inventory
Replacement Equipment
New Equipment
Research and Development



The indicator approach takes into account:

unemployment figures
(All of these)
GDP
(None of these)



Which of the following is not included under the quantitative forecasting method?

Naive Method
Moving Average
Delphi Method
Trend Analysis



What is an example of qualitative forecasting technique?

Seasonal Indexes
Last Period Demand
Delphi Method
Simple Exponential Smoothing



The Delphi method is a type of:

quantitative model
(None of these)
qualitative model
linear model



Which of the following is not included under the qualitative forecasting method?

Delphi Method
Market Research
Moving Average Methods
Executive Opinions



True or False? Black swan events are typically included in financial forecasts.

False
True



True or False? Predicting revenue is not part of financial forecasting.

False
True



True or False? Forecasting is based on historical information and assumptions.

True
False



True or False? Use of historical data is irrelevant to a financial forcast.

True
False



Which of the following could be used in financial forecasts?

financial models
Information on balance sheets
(All of these)
Historical data of earnings



What is financial forecasting?

Determination of a company's current financial situation
Estimation of a company's future financial situation
(None of these)



True or False? A sensitivity analysis is changing a value or an original assumption to see what effect it has on the overall model.

True
False



The primary purpose of a cash budget is:

To determine the cash collection pattern
To determine monthly cash receipts
To divide the income statement into monthly periods
To determine whether the company has enough cash to fulfill regular operations or will generate excess cash



True of False? Forecasting future costs can be estimated by using historical data.

False
True



The most encompassing means of financial forecasting is:

Done using a long-term time horizon
Through the use of Pro Forma Financial Statements
Done using a short-term time horizon
Through the use of securities analyst's forecasts for the firm



If a company has a low PE ratio and is expected to maintain profit, what do you expect the share price to do in the future?

Go up
stay the same
Go down



True or False? Quantitative models typically use experts opinions to form future trends.

True
False



What does EPS stand for?

Earnings Per Sector
Earnings Per Share
Estimated Pre Sales
(None of these)



Financial forecasting is used for:

(All of these)
private companies
public companies
countries



The indicator approach is a type of:

qualitative model
(None of these)
quantitative model
linear model



Which budget is prepared to determine how much external financing will be needed to support estimated sales?

Balance Sheet Budget
Income Statement Budget
Shareholder's Equity Budget
Cash Budget



True or False? A black swan is an example of an internality.

False
True



On the pro forma balance sheet, which of the following is normally the "plug" number inserted to "balance" the balance sheet?

Total Assets
Long-term Debt
Additional Funds Needed
Changes in Retained Earnings



What does the x-axis of the security market line measure?

risk
slope
expected return



Companies with lower PEG ratios typically:

outperfom companies with higher PEG ratios
underperform companies with higher PEG ratios
there is no correlation between PEG and performance
(None of these)



Companies with higher PEG ratios typically:

(None of these)
have no correlation with companies who have lower PEG ratios
underperform companies with lower PEG ratios
outperfom companies with lower PEG ratios



If a company has a very high forward PE ratio, what do you expect the share price to do in the future?

Go up
stay the same
Go down



If the yield to maturity > current yield > coupon yield, the bond is sold at a ______?

premium
par
discount



What is an advantage of the EV / EBITDA multiple?

It is unaffected by depreciation policy
Ignores value created through tax management
It reports variations in capital expenditures and depreciation



How does market research differ from the delphi method?

both are similar but the delphi method is a newer name
both take the opinions of experts but the delphi method takes into account their previous forecasting results
one takes the opinion of non-experts while the other takes only the opinion of experts
(None of these)



The Black-Scholes model calculates the price of a:

Share Price
Bond Price
European put and call options
American put and call option



True or False? Bayes theorem does not use balance sheets to make predictions.

True
False



Which of the following are important characteristics when identifying peer companies to use in firm valuation?

Growth Rate
All
Cash Flow
Company Size



The Percent of Sales Method of financial forecasting will help to identify:

The rationale behind sales increases
Financing needs
Changes to earnings
Relationship changes between assets and liabilities



True or False? Prediction markets are informative markets that are created for the purpose of making market predictions.

True
False



Before they are updated, financial forecasts are typically used for:

5 year's time
a year's time
a month's time
(None of these)