HRFIN81 Research Project in Finance Assignment Coursework Brief 2026 | UNISA

HRFIN81 Assignment Coursework Brief

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SELECTED PROFITABILITY RATIOS AND  THE SHARE PRICE OF ABSA GROUP LIMITED

by

type your name(s) and surname here, change the font colour to black, then delete this instruction

type your student number here, change the font colour to black, then delete this instruction

in the fulfilment of the requirements for

HRFIN81: RESEARCH PROJECT IN FINANCE 

in the subject

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

SUPERVISOR: Prof J Mar

Ethics declaration

HRFIN81

Theme: Correlations between selected profitability ratios and the share price of ABSA Group Ltd

Acknowledgment of Unisa Research Ethics policies and confirmation of adherence to Unisa Research Ethics requirements

I confirm that:

Declaration of Authenticity

I, ……………………… declare that I am the author of this research report and that I have not used another author to write the report on my behalf. In other words, I declare that the entire document is my own original work and that where I used other information and resources, I did so in a responsible manner. I did not plagiarise and have referenced and acknowledged any resources I consulted and used to complete this research according to the Harvard referencing style requirements. By signing this declaration, I acknowledge that I am aware of what plagiarism and ghostwriting are and the consequences thereof. Furthermore, I acknowledge that I am aware of UNISA’s policy on plagiarism and understand that UNISA will take action if there is evidence of plagiarism found in this document.

Abstract

Instruction: this section needs to be completed for Assignment 3. Read the lesson about writing an Abstract at the HRFIN81 site of myUnisa and apply the guidelines provided to write a structured abstract. In other words, retain the headings provided below – do not delete the headings which have been provided below. Delete this instruction once you have completed writing the abstract. Change the font colour from blue to black once you are done.

Background

Investment analysts use various valuation models, including dividend discount valuation models (DDM), to determine if shares are undervalued, fully priced, or overvalued.

Research problem

State the research problem (in one sentence).

Motivation

Describe why you did the research (in one sentence) (justify why the research is important and warrantable).

Research approach and methodology

Describe what you did in order to find a solution to the research problem or to answer the research questions (in one sentence); in other words, mention your paradigm, approach and methodology in one sentence.

Main finding

Describe what you found (in one sentence).

Implications for practice

Describe what the results mean for investment analysts who use dividend discount valuation models (in one sentence).

Implications for theory

Describe how the above-mentioned finding(s) innovate or improve the theory of share valuation (in one sentence).

Word count:     words.

(Display the word count of your abstract for Assignment 3 and indicate it here below the abstract before submitting Assignment 3. MS Word will calculate the word count for you if you select both the headings and text of the Abstract and then click on Review followed by Word Count. The abstract may not be more than 250 words. This includes each of the headings already provided, but excludes the word count which you need to indicate). Delete the word count of the Abstract for Assignment 4.

Once you have typed your abstract, delete the instructions (indicated in blue).

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Table of contents

Create the Table of contents for assignment 3. You need to indicate only the page number on which each of the following sections starts (instead of all the pages covered by each section). Once you have done so, delete this instruction

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SELECTED PROFITABILITY RATIOS AND THE SHARE PRICE OF ABSA GROUP LIMITED

1. INTRODUCTION

Instructions: This section needs to be completed for Assignment 3. Read the lesson about writing an Introduction at the HRFIN81 site of myUnisa and apply the guidelines provided. Keep the use of dividend discount valuation models by investment analysts in mind as the context for your research report. Delete this instruction once you have written this section. The Introduction should be 600 – 900 words long.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Instructions: This section needs to be completed for Assignment 1. Write an academic argument and prove your statements by means of in-text references to appropriate articles from academic journals. Your argument must be that this research has not been done to date. Please use past tense for the purpose of this literature review. A critical analysis of the literature will earn you extra marks. There is no need to provide definitions here in the literature review. Read the lesson about writing a literature review at the HRFIN81 site of myUnisa and apply the guidelines provided. Change the font colour to black once you are done. Delete this instruction once you have written this section. Your lit review should cite at least 20 articles from peer-reviewed journals and be 1 500 – 2 500 words long. Use justification Even in all the sections from the Abstract to the Conclusion. You need to decide what subheadings (2.1 – 2.4) you are going to use, depending on your academic argument. 

3. RESEARCH PROBLEM

The research problem of this study is to determine whether there are any correlations between the profitability ratios and the share price of ABSA Group Ltd from 2014 to 2024.

3.1 Research question

Is there a positive, negative, or no correlation between the profitability ratios and the share price of ABSA Group Ltd?

3.1 Hypotheses

The hypotheses of this study are the following:

H₀: there is no correlation between the profitability ratios and the share price of ABSA Group Ltd (at a significance level of 5%).

H₁: there is a positive correlation between the profitability ratios and the share price of ABSA Group Ltd (at a significance level of 5%).

H₂: there is a negative correlation between the profitability ratios and the share price of ABSA Group Ltd (at a significance level of 5%).

4. METHODOLOGY

Instruction: This section needs to be completed for Assignment 2. Read the lesson about writing your Methodology section at the HRFIN81 site of myUnisa and apply the guidelines provided. You may use websites about Statistics for this section (instead of academic journals) or consult Statistics textbooks. Delete this instruction once you have written this section. Section 4 (the methodology section) should be 750 – 1 000 words long.

4.1 Research paradigm

Advice: Briefly describe positivism as a paradigm in maximum 10 sentences. Focus on the characteristics of positivism and the implications for your research report. Delete this advice once you have written this paragraph.

4.2 Research approach

This study follows a non-experimental correlational approach. … (explain this in one or two sentences, then delete this instruction)

4.3 Obtaining the data

The required data was obtained from iRess. The data consists of some of the profitability ratios and the share price of ABSA Group Limited for the period 2014 – 2024. Only secondary data will be used for the current study.

4.4 Methods of data analysis

Instruction: explain how you will do your data exploration. For the data exploration, do not use descriptive statistics. Focus on the following three aspects only: 1. a visual representation of the data, 2. Any possible missing data, and 3. outliers. Then explain correlation analysis and how the results may be interpreted.

4.5 Ethical considerations

Ethical clearance has already been granted by the Ethics Committee of the College of Economic and Management Sciences at Unisa (see Annexure A).

Advice: briefly refer to the Unisa ethics policy (provided at your HRFIN81 site of myUnisa) and provide an in-text reference. In the case of this study, you need not apply or indicate you need to still apply for ethical clearance because ethical clearance has already been granted to the HRFIN81 class.

Since secondary data is used (and no people or interviews are involved), the following ethical issues should be covered briefly, in no more than half a page):

– Not falsifying or fabricating data.

– Citing all authors or providers of sourced information.

– Not embarrassing or exposing companies or organisations involved in the study.

– Execute the research in a professional manner that will be beneficial to the participants and society.

(And provide a reference or two)

Delete this advice once you have written this paragraph.

5. Results

Instruction: This section also needs to be completed for Assignment 2. Here, you need to present and describe your results by applying what you described in section 4, providing your summary statistics (in tables and figures), and briefly describing the results in terms of the research question and hypotheses provided in section 3. Consider the implications of investment analysts’ use of valuation models. Please make sure to correctly number and provide the titles of figures and tables, as well as the source of each.

The data required was generated using the iRess database. This section will explain how the data exploration and correlation analysis were performed, as well as how the results are interpreted.

5.1 Data exploration

Instruction: For the data exploration, do not provide any descriptive statistics. Focus on the following three aspects only: 1. a visual representation of the data, 2. Report if there are any missing data and 3. outliers. In other words, one should plot all the data on one graph to explore if there is any visual evidence of possible correlations or not. Confirm there are no missing data. Also, demonstrate how you have identified outliers using box and whisker plots and describe how you treated such outliers (if any) in your study. (One could, for example, perform the analysis with the outliers included and again by excluding the outliers, followed by a comparison of the results).

5.2 Correlation analysis

Advice: The data is available from iRess at the e-resources of the Unisa Library website.

Please do not contact iRess for the data; it is already available from the Unisa Library website under e-resources, free of charge to Unisa students and staff members.

Use an MS Excel spreadsheet to perform your analysis. If you are familiar with EViews and have access to EViews, then you are welcome to use EViews instead of MS Excel. There are numerous YouTube videos available explaining how to perform the analysis and how to interpret your results.

Should you not have the Statistics Toolpak as part of your MS Excel, then visit the following site to learn how to add the Toolpak to your MS Excel:

load-the-analysis-toolpak-in-excel

Please delete this advice once you have done your statistical analysis.

5.3 Interpretation of the results

Instruction: link your interpretation of the results to each of the hypotheses provided in section 3. For each hypothesis, indicate if the hypothesis is not rejected or rejected. Please delete this advice once you have implemented it.

6. CONCLUSION

Instruction: this section needs to be completed for Assignment 3. Read the lesson about writing a Conclusion at the HRFIN81 site of myUnisa and apply the guidelines provided. There is no word limit set for this section. However, you need to capture the essence of the study and come to a synthesis, point out any limitation(s) and indicate one or two possible areas for further research. Delete this advice once you have written this section. Do not use any references, figures, tables, or bullets in your Conclusion.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Instructions:

1. Use Harvard referencing (and not APA). Consult the referencing style guide provided at the HRFIN81 site of myUnisa, for guidelines and examples. In 2025, you need to use the Guidelines for using the Harvard referencing style of the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS). These guidelines were updated recently.
2. Do not number your references.
3. Do not use bullets in your References section.
4. Do not copy and paste a References section from one of the sources used in the Literature review. (Turnitin will catch you out).

5. Always maintain the alphabetical order of your references – according to the author’s surname indicated first for each source. When adding new references for Assignments 02 – 04, keep maintaining the alphabetical order at all times.

6. Update the References section each time you complete one of your Assignments. However, you must retain the alphabetical order of your references at all times.

7. You need to use at least 20 references from peer-reviewed journals. The reason for this is that your work must be evidence-based.

8. Once you have created your References section, change the font colour back to black.
9. Please do not number the heading of this References section.
10. Use the same font for your List of References as the rest of your report, namely Arial 12 point.

11. Do not use et al. here in your list of references.
12. You may use justification Left for your List of references.
13. Do make corrections to the List of References each time you receive feedback about

Assignments 1, 2, and 3. Your references not only prove you can pay attention to detail and that you are meticulous, but they must also enable the readers of your work to find these sources easily and with confidence. In this respect, provide a URL for each of your sources (as far as possible).

Delete these instructions before submitting Assignment 1.

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