Queens College
Fall 2008
<Syllabus>
Course: Corporate Finance - Bus. 241 3 cr. 4 hrs. (3 hrs lecture, 1 hr Excel lab)
Instructor: Jeffrey Farber jfarber105@aol.com
Office hours: T, Th 5:30-6:20pm, Powdermaker rm 300
Reading: Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, 5 th Ed. Brealey, Myers and Marcus (An inexpensive custom-made version covering only the chapters for the course is available at our bookstore)
Excel Modeling and Estimation in the Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, 3 rd Ed. Craig W.
Holden ISBN 13: 978-0-13-207989-1 Buy a new copy either at our bookstore or online to be sure that you get the diskette that comes with the book.
I will email to you through Blackboard two or three articles from journals relevant to the course material. You must call O.C.T. and tell them to link your school email address to
Blackboard otherwise you won’t receive them and you’ll have to access them yourself from the library database.
The material will be presented using PowerPoint slides. The Brealey website (www. mhhe.com/bmm5e) has the slides for download for your personal use. (Adjust your printer settings for six slides per page, not one, otherwise you’ll run out of ink)
Approximate scheduling is as follows:
Weeks 1 to 3: Overview of the Corporation. Its goals, structure and major decisions.
Purposes of financial markets and institutions.
Review of Accounting and its relationship to Finance.
Brealey chapters 1 to 3.
Article: Corporate Objectives – Maximizing Social vs. Private equity
Excel basics
Weeks 4 to 6: The Time Value of Money: present value, future value, annuities, and
perpetuities. Compound interest, effective annual interest rates and inflation
and interest rates. Mortgages.
Brealey chapter 4
Excel chapters 1 to 5.
Weeks 7 to 8: Bonds: Interest rates and prices. Coupons. Yield to Maturity. Required

return to bondholders.
Brealey chapter 5
Excel chapter 6.
Midterm exam.
Weeks 9 to 10: Stock Valuation: Dividend Discount Model. Estimating growth rates using
plowback ratios and return on equity. Present value of growth opportunities.
Article - Stock Valuation Using Fair-Value Accounting data.
Brealey chapter 6
Excel chapter 8
Weeks 11-12: Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Equivalent Annual Annuity.
Cash Flow vs. Accounting Income, Capital Budgeting, Discounted Cash Flow
Analysis.
Article - Information that Boards Really Need
Brealey chapters 7 and 8.
Excel chapter 11
Weeks 13-14: Sensitivity analysis. Scenario analysis. Breakeven analysis by Net Income
and Net Present Value.
Brealey chapter 9
Excel chapter 12
Final exam