Foundations of Valuation

Foundations of valuation is an introductory finance course required for all MBA students. It is designed to cover those areas of finance that are important to all managers, whether they specialize in finance or not. At the end of the course, you will be familiar with the most common financial instruments (stocks, bonds, options) and the methods to value them. More specifically, we will cover the following topics: 1. General framework for valuation (present value formula) 2. Bond and bond valuation (spot rates, yield to maturity, duration, convexity) 3. Stocks (stock valuation, dividend growth model) 4. Basic concepts of risk and return and the CAPM 5. Options (Black-Scholes formula) The course will be a mix of lectures and cases. Students are expected to come prepared to class since the course relies on several in-class exercises students will solve in excel.