...FPL – An Overview FPL Group, Inc. is Florida’s largest electric utility company. In 1925, through the consolidation of numerous electric and gas companies, they formed Florida Power & Light Company (FP&L). FP&L grew steadily over the next 50 years until rising fuel costs, operating issues, and construction costs began to decrease profitability. In the mid-1980s, FPL diversified with four major acquisitions - Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company, Telesat Cablevision, Inc., CBR Information Group Inc., and Turner Foods Corporation- in order to minimize the potential risk within the utilities industry. To address problems in operations, FPL began a rigorous program of Japanese-inspired quality control. Management succeeded in transforming FPL into a lean operational system resulting in a drop in scheduled downtime from 18% to 4%, while customer complaints also fell by 60%. By 1989, FPL was recognized as “one of the best-managed U.S. corporations.†Despite the progress in quality, FPL was still dealing with problems: Colonial Penn was losing money, there were safety concerns about a particular nuclear plant, and demand was growing faster than capacity. In 1989, James Broadhead succeeded Chairman Marshall McDonald. Broadhead placed an emphasis on commitment to quality and customer service, increasing focus on the utilities industry, expanding capacity, and improving cost positions. He took measures to scale back the intense quality controls while still working...
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...1. Why do firms pay dividends? What is general, are the advantages and disadvantages of paying cash dividends? Firms pay dividends based on their finance and investing strategies and decisions. If a firm is looking to finance a project through borrowing the company may want to give cash dividends to its shareholders to reduce the amount of their cash balances on hand. Also dividends are a way to give back to their investors and shareholders. By them receiving the cash dividends they are gaining immediate cash payment to spend in their own way or to reinvest with the company. Also stocks that offer dividends are sometimes more favorable to investors because they know they will be getting routine income from the stock. The advantages of paying cash dividends are based in what signals it gives to the market. If the company is giving out dividends and the dividends increase this is a good signal to the market that the company is doing well and that the stock is on the rise. Also, in times when the stock price decreases but the company continues to pay out the normal dividends it shows the market that the company is not nervous and will rebound back soon. Some disadvantages of paying cash dividends are that it can also give bad signals to the market. If dividends decrease it can signal to the market that the company is not doing well and the value of the stock will decrease. From this signal investors and shareholders might sell the stock, further driving down the stock price of...
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...Dividend Policy at FPL Group, Inc. FPL Group, Inc., the Florida's largest electric utility company, after 47 years of uninterrupted increase in dividends, was considering cut dividends in 1994. How would this unusual move affect FPL and the investors? Meanwhile, what would Kate Stark, the analyst at the Equity Securities Corporation, recommend regarding investment in FPL's stock - buy, sell, or hold? 1. Current Dividend Policy at FPL • FPL’s current payout ratio = Dividend per Share/Earning per Share = 2.47/2.30 = 107.4%. (Exhibit 4b) High relative to other utilities (exhibit 9) • Current Dividend Yield = Dividend per Share/Price per Share = 2.47/33=7.5% (Exhibit 4b&Exihit 8) Average level among utilities • Historic Dividend Policy: 1985 through 1993, payout has risen from 62% to 107.4% ；While during the same period, percentage increases in dividends has decreased from 9.6% to 1.6% 2．Why FPL consider cut dividend? • Challenges facing the FPL Group in May 1994: ✓ High pay-out ration will be unsustainable: The advent of retail wheeling threatens to reshape the entire electric utilities industry. It will bring more challenges to FPL. ✓ Low capacity Margin: 8.6% (Exhibit 7) which means FPL has less room in term of growth compared to peers. Need to invest in capacity to deal with the increased competition. ✓ FPL has a large amount of debt, and reducing the dividend could facilitate FPL debt repayment. FPL stock has fallen dramatically...
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...Xu Shu Li Yifan Wu Class Session: MWF 1:50-2:45 PM Case 1: Dividend Policy at FPL Group Inc. Because of FPL’s reluctance to increase its dividends and increased competition in the electric utility industry, Merrill Lynch’s utility analyst downgraded FPL Group Inc. Kate Stark, utility analyst at First Securities Corporation, wondered whether she should issue an updated report about stocks of FPL. We investigated the potential risks faced by FPL and its payout policies, and according to the results, we recommend the shareholders to hold FPL’s stocks. Based on our analysis, there are several important issues confronting the FPL Group in May 1994. The first one is the potential competitors and losses resulting from retail wheeling. Although Florida does not consider a retail wheeling proposal now, retail wheeling is still a threat because of the general trend of the industry. FPL needs to ensure that it has the ability to compete with other companies both in and out of state. Also, negotiations between FPL and Florida Municipal Power Agency are still continuing. Florida Municipal Power Agency accused FPL of violating the NEPA of 1992 by charging excessive rates and denying access to its utility transmission system. FPL is also concerned with the increased long-term interest rates which will result in a larger interest expense accompanied by underperformance. Due to the relatively high levels of debt, FPL could not pass all interest increases to customers. FPL’s stock price has fallen...
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...DATABASE ASSIGNEMENT ONLINE STORE DATABSE TABLE NAME * STUDENT/CUSTOMER * ENROLLMENT * COURSES * CATEGORY * ORDERS * ORDER DETAILS * PAYMENT * PRODUCT * SHIPPERS * SUPPLIER/COMPANY TABLES ATTRIBUTES STUDENT/CUSTOMER STUDENT table contain attribute such as: * STUDENT ID-PRIMARY KEY * FIRST NAME * LAST NAME * ADDRESS * POSTAL CODE * CITY * STATE * COUNTRY * PHONE * EMAIL * PASSWORD * CREDIT CARD * CREDIT CARD TYPE ID * BILLING ADDRESS * SHIP ADDRESS * DATE ENTERED ENROLLMENT ENROLLMENT table contain attribute such as: * STU ID-PRIMARY KEY * COURSE ID-PRIMARY KEY * SEMESTER-PRIMARY KEY * INTAKE COURSES COURSE table contain attribute such as: * COURSE ID-PRIMARY KEY * COURSE NAME * FACULTY CATEGORY CATEGORY table contain attribute such as: * CATEGORY ID-PRIMARY KEY * CATEGORY NAME * DESCRIPTION * PICTURE * ACTIVE ORDERS ORDERS table contain attribute such as: * ORDER ID * STUDENT ID * PAYMENT ID * SHIPPER ID * ORDER NUMBER * ORDER DATE * SHIPDATE * REQUIRED DATE * SALE TAX * TIME STAMP * TRANSACTION STATUS * FULFILED * DELETED * PAID * PAYMENT DATE ORDER DETAILS ORDERDATAILS table contain attribute such as: * ORDER IDs-PRIMARY KEY * PRODUCT IDs * ORDER NUMBER * PRICE * QUANTITY * DISCOUNT * TOTAL * IDSKU *...
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.... Introduction top next gema actions are enough for everyday usage but occasionally you may need more power to define a complex transformation. You might, also, want to use the superior matching capabilities of gema to drive your program. GeL is a Lua 5 library that: allows the execution of Lua function (and hence of a C function) in a gema action provides the powerful text matching mechanisms offered by gema as a set of Lua functions it has been tested with Lua 5.0.2. Refer to the detailed documentation to build gel togheter with gema, . 1.1 Status GeL is not as mature as gema or Lua, please report any bugs you may find using SourceForge bug tracking subsystem (you don't need to log in as a SourceForge user) or sending an e-mail to Remo Dentato. 1.2 Licence GeL is released under the same licence of Gema. No specific reference needs to be made to GeL as long as the due reference to Gema and Lua have been made. 2. Usage prev top next 2.1 Gema like Gel may be used exactly as if it was gema, any valid gema script should work when executed by gel: gel [gemaopts] [-f rules.gema] [-l script.lua] [infile [outfile]] . The only differences are: The @lua{} function is available to execute lua scripts in actions Text enclosed between "![" and "!]" is considered lua code and is immediately executed Rules specfied with '-f' are loaded, the lua script specified with '-l' is executed (possibily defining lua function...
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...experience. My seminar topic was about examining the imagery that appeared in the play Hamlet. A skill I developed was using technological equipment to present a presentation.Each group had to pick a topic that was in their interest to research online for information. The requirements started with presenting the information in front of the class informing the audience what imagery means and discuss using concrete examples from the play. This presentation gave me the opportunity to work with PowerPoint and Excel and then to present my information. I believe that in order to communicate effectively with the audience you have to have a well prepared presentation that will capture their attention so that you can present your ideas clearly. A skill that I had trouble was to be able to work as a team. The imagery seminar was a great opportunity for me to develop my team work skills because we were put in to pairs to complete the seminar. Each member in the group had specific responsibilities to the team in order for the seminar to be successful. Being in the group to work on the seminar was a great experience for me because I was able to see where my strong and weak points are in group work. I found that it was easier for me to communicate my ideas with Rachna than to the whole class. A big part of group work is good communication between Rachna and I. Communication is also a big part of my learning experience because I will need to be able to get my ideas out by communicating well...
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...Inequalities Thomas Cunningham MAT221: Introduction to Algebra (GSO13360) Instructor: Justin Hazel Inequalities In this assignment I will be showing you how you can find out how to use Inequalities to find out how much you may or may not be overweight. You can use my equations and the examples of my work to find out exactly what category you might fall in. In this equation we are asked to use our own height to find out exactly if I might have a longer life span than the usual person. Before we start remember that W=my weight, and then H=my height. W=178.2 and then H=67 In this first compound inequality, I had to take the equivalent inequality and replace it with the BMI formula. My height and weight has been added in to replace the current H^. The next steps for this compound inequality I had to multiply all the terms by the denominator. There was some cancellation done towards the first phase of the problem. I then all three terms where divided by 703 to isolate W. People’s height of 67 might be different life span of those whom might weigh between 108lbs and 128lbs. 17<BMI<=22 17<703W/67^<22 17<703W/4489<22 17(4489) <703W<22(4489) 76313<703W<8978 76313/703<8978/703 108<W<128 In order to solve this second inequality, what I need to do is solve for W and place the values of W. The very first thing that happens is I multiply all the terms by H^ in order to take out...
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...to be successful in terms of assistance in these particular areas. Matrix organizations are kinds of structures that a categorized flexible and responsive and are characterized by employees having more than one supervisor and in order for them to perform at their highest level of productivity, they must have some area of expertise that is disciplined. The project team happens to become a creation of several highly imaginatively intelligent groups of people that are formed to collaborate with each other and strive at creating more diverse ideas, or putting a different take on some of the many already formed ideas and the opinions of those more diverse ideas. The collegial model works flawlessly when each member is able to be independent, but equally share management responsibilities or work out a specific rotation that meets each individuals peer or colleagues needs. The need or want for freedom or independence in the aforementioned paragraph has little merit when they must come together to satisfy matters that affect the entire group....
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...the initial stage of a team. In this part a team gets formed and the members of the team get through the icebreaking process. Forming is a stage in which group members try to assess ground rules applying to a task and to group interaction (Bartol et al., 2005, p.476). In the first tutorial of organisation and management, all the team members were unfamiliar and unknown to each other. There was diversity because students of many nations and cultures came together. Everyone was confused about what to do. There was no one who wanted to be the first spokesperson. In this situation team members were all divided into some little groups to complete the first tutorial task. As every team member were unknown to each other, one of the team members spoke out and discussed the tutorial task. After that everyone started to contribute and gave ideas, with that the group was working very effectively. Members completed the task and then submitted it to their tutor. In the first tutorial the team members were totally unclear about the team goals. Individuals did not know what their role in the team is. Some students were really nervous as they were not able to cope up with the other team members. It was a negative site of the team, as the team was not able to work effectively. After selecting the team leader the team was divided into sub-groups like- Marketing, Public Relation, Finance and IT. All the students...
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...Lab 5.1 The Condition | True or False | attAverage >= verizonAverage | True | tmobileAverage == 868 | True | verizonAverage < sprintAverage | False | sprintAverage != attAverage | True | Lab 5.2 The Condition | Expected Output | If tmobileAverage > 800 AND verizonAverage> 800 ThenDisplay “Both have average downloadrates over 800”ElseDisplay “One or both of the averagesare less”End If | Both average download Rates over 800 | If sprintAverage == 800 ThenDisplay “Sprints download rate is 800”End If | No display | If attAverage >= 1300 OR tmobileAverage>=900Display “Select either carrier”End If | Select either carrier | Lab 5.3 Main Module() //Declare variables on the next 3 lines Declare Integer testScore = 0 Declare String category = “ “ Declare String interview = “ “ //Make Module calls and pass necessary variables on the next 4 lines Call getScore(testScore) Call employCat(testScore, category) Call interviewPoss(testScore, interview) Call displayInfo(testScore, category, interview) End Main Module getScore(Integer Ref testScore) //Ask user to test score Display “Please enter test score” Input testScore End Module Module employCat(Integer testScore, String ref category) //Determine what employment category they are in based on their test score //Similar to if the score is less than 60, then category is “No” //Otherwise, if score is less than 70, then category is “Maybe” //…and so on if testScore => 85 then Set...
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...PDC Dull Grading System Inner 1 Outer 2 Dull Char 3 Location 4 Bearing Seals 5 Gauge 6 Other Dull Char 7 Reason Pulled 8 1: Inner Cutting Structure 2: Outer Cutting Structure 3: Primary Dull Characteristic 4: Location of Primary Characteristic 5: Bearing Seals (XXX for PDC. Only used for roller cone) 6: Amount Under Gauge 7: Other / Secondary Dull Characteristic 8: Reason Bit Was Pulled Inner & Outer Cutting Structure • • Rating for both inner and outer cutting structure is given in a scale of 1 to 8. A rating of 1 states that 1/8 of the cutter’s diamond table has been worn. A rating of 8 would mean that there is no effective diamond table left. An average rating for both the inner and outer cutting structure is entered for the first 2 positions of the dull grading code. • Inner & Outer Cutting Structure Outer Inner The inner cutting structure consists of the inner 2/3 of the bit diameter whereas the outer consists of the final 1/3. A general rule of thumb is the inner number represents the cutters inside the nose and the outer represents those outside. Inner & Outer Cutting Structure Rating: Wear 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 When dull grading pure wear, the 1 through 8 rating system can be followed exactly. However, in many cases, a wear flat less than 1/8 of the diamond table can be called a 1. Inner & Outer Cutting Structure Chipping Spalling Delam 2 3 8 When dull grading cutters with characteristics other than pure wear, take into...
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...1. Introduction - What are the major issues and problems facing Chabot? Background – current situation – future plan - challenges confronted – problems need to be solved Chabot is facing a lot of issues and problems in the wallpaper industry. As the number of wallpaper manufacturers is highly decreasing over last years the competition among remaining companies becomes fiercer. Some manufacturers face difficulties supplying large and powerful retailers. So does Chabot as a privately owned, small company selling products with short life cycles and highly valued at a reasonable price. Due to fashion orientated product industry and broad range of product preferences other types of wall covering are favored by consumers as well. To keep up with competitors Chabot is providing new items every 4 month but speeds up obsolete wallpapers as well. When wallpaper pattern and designs become obsolete, markdowns are necessary to help get rid of old inventory. Problems with inventory turnover lead to mark downs which decrease profits. Caused by inaccurate demand forecasting Chabot has to deal with a high amount of obsolete inventory and a resulting low turnover rate. Since customers base their decisions on style and appeal of the design as well as on in stock availability retailer want low inventory and expect quick order fulfillment. But Chabot cannot keep up with demand and causing a low level of customer service due to long production runs and lack of flexibility in manufacturing process...
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...2: Unwrapping ISLLC Standard 1 This week’s assignment was very interesting. I had not participated in an unwrapping activity since a workshop I attended in 2004. At the beginning of the exercise I was worried about being a part of an online team. I was especially wary of using the online group forum for coordinating the completion of the group project. I am, by nature, a worrier, but I should not have been stressed. The team quickly responded to my original message, we exchanged numbers, divided the assignment into manageable pieces, and one teammate volunteered to put the assignment together. At first, I was confused with the requirements, but after receiving guidance from the professor, I understood the expectations. Once the parameters of the assignment were agreed upon and set, everyone has met the established deadlines. I view this exercise as basic-training for when I am charged with larger projects as an administrator and I fully expect that the personality conflicts and obstacles to the effective completion of the assignments will be repeated in future projects. The leadership skills acquired as a part of the cooperative learning group will translate and be useful in my future role as an administrator. For the future, I need to trust the established protocols for completing scheduled tasks. Although I am quick to take on leadership responsibilities, I need to resist the urge to reinvent the wheel. I need to acknowledge that in a long-standing...
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...Program Description: This program will calculate all of the useable area (in square feet) in a house. This specific house contains four rooms, all of which are rectangular in shape. Analysis: My goal in creating this program is that it successfully calculates the useable square footage in a house that contains four rooms. The values which are required to perform the calculations will be the length of room 1 times the width of room 1(in feet). This will give the area of room one, which will in turn become the useable area for this particular room. The same length times width (L x W) formula will then be used for all subsequent rooms. After the area for all four rooms has been found, the sum of the area of each room will be the final output for useable square feet. The output values are as follows: * L1: The length for room 1 * W1: The width for room 1 * L2: The length for room 2 * W2: The width for room 2 * L3: The length for room 3 * W3: The width for room 3 * L4: The length for room 4 * W4: The width for room 4 * T1: Total square feet for room 1 * T2: Total square feet for room 2 * T3: Total square feet for room 3 * T4: Total square feet for room 4 * Total_SqFt: Total useable square footage in the house Test Plan: Test Case # | Input | Expected Output | 1 | Room 1 - Length:20 Width:14Room 2: - Length:16 Width:12Room 3: - Length:22 Width:16Room 4: - Length:12 Width:10 | Square Feet: 944 | 2 | Room 1 -...
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