Foundations of Finance: The Logic and Practice of Financial Management

by John J. Clark, J. William Petty II, John W. Petty

Unique in its approach, this text provides students with an intuitive, conceptual understanding of the financial decision-making process--rather than just introducing them to soon-forgotten formulas... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0132339870
• ISBN13: 9780132339872
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.2" x 10.7"

Customer Reviews

A real eye opener!

This text is more or less a survey of the decision making process for financial managers. It's a fascinating glimpse at a world far too complex and dynamic to contain in any textbook. The subject matter is challenging, but the authors do a good job of making it understandable without making it simplistic. For me, the book has helped me to determine that I want to pursue a deeper education and career in corporate finance.

Very Helpful Book!

I bought this book for my Financial Management class and I am very satisfied with my purchase. The book does a great job explaining stuff through the use of clear examples, and it is also helping me teach myself all the material since my professor sucks at speaking English. I definitely recommend this textbook if you are in a finance class.

A fine textbook for introductory finance courses

I am a junior finance faculty. After instructing economics courses for several years it was the first time I'd be teaching finance. I've been using this book for almost 2 months now. It is clear and very well organized. The first 4 chapters elaborates on how to read the financial statements of a firm. The chapters that follow discuss the valuation of financial securities. The appendix is very concise since it focuses on how to use a financial calculator, which is a must for a financial manager. The remaining chapters of the book focus on various topics like investment and capital budgeting decisions as well as dividend policy of a firm. I highly recommend this book as a primary text for undergraduate finance courses.

Review of Foundations of Finance by Arthur J. Keown

This is an excellent text. I've read it thoroughly. The material , as presented, assumes a robust course in accounting at the college level. This text is for a student desiring a complete rendition in basic finance topics and techniques. The text is replete with many examples and challenging problems of various complexities. The presentation is easy to read. The book is directed to students perhaps majoring in economics or finance. It is not a purely descriptive rendition of finance. Aconsiderable amount of so called "numbers crunching" is involved in reviewing this text. As such, the book serves the analytic student optimally. The text is devoid of the most complicated analytics inherent in "quantitatively oriented texts". There is a good appendix on the use of financial calculators ,as well as, present value calculations and other useful knowledge supplemental to the study of finance. This book would be most useful to students planning their careers as financial analysts, corporate planners or private entrepreneurs.

Of all those Management books...

This was the best. A very clear and concise book for the serious student being introduced to the subject of Finance. Other books on the subject I've seen are very abstruse or just plain hard to read aside from weighing a ton. I had another book twice as thick to complement this one and my class abandoned it in short order. This book is comparatively light and chalk full of useful ideas and examples laid out in an organized and methodical manner. The generous use of charts and tables was executed well. Probably as simple as finance can possibly be put while still retaining the rigor and teaching the processes necessary for making financial computations. Topics included are on basic valuation of various securities and projects using discounted cash flows, capital budget management, liquidity management, etc. I'm still learning from it after school. There simply wasn't enough time to fully cover everything in the book that I would have wanted. Now I'm ready to tackle more advanced corporate finance books/materials. This is an introductory book for someone who may be interested in becoming a financial analyst but is obviously geared to the educational market for use in schools. The academic slant limits its applicability somewhat. Although it may give a stock market player who wants to start understanding the systematic process involved in the valuation of securities on a cash flow basis some insight for example, discussion on valuation by multiples like P/Es is virtually absent. Nonetheless a great book.