Our task is to develop a detailed Financial Statement Analysis for Costco Wholesale in the year provided in the case FY2001. You should include the following components in your analysis:

Brief description of the company (Costco), its market, its competitors and its strategy.
Analyze Costco’s Income Statement and Balance Sheet. Discuss any trends that emerged from 1997 to 2001 (see Exhibits 5 and 9).
Analyze Costco’s financial ratios. Assess the company’s financial performance in regards to its profitability and financial risk (see Exhibits 10 and 11).
Briefly compare Costco’s financial statements with the main competitor’s financial statements (see Exhibits 6, 7, 8, and 11). What are Costco’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition?
Based on your analysis, provide a forecast for the company’s financial performance in the upcoming five years (in very broad terms). Focus on the company’s future profitability and potential future financial risks. Also discuss how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives may help Costco to achieve its financial goals.

Format of Paper:

There is no strict minimum or maximum length. The majority of well-structured Financial Statement Analyses in the past were about 3 pages long.- Font size 12.
Single-spaced.
Font type: Times New Roman.