Equity Analyst Research ReportsLocked: included in All Access

Equity research reports: what a full company report covers, sell-side versus buy-side research, and why analysts using the same model reach different values.

1. 1. Company research reports and the analysis frameworkA research report turns company and industry analysis into a forecast, a valuation and a recommendation; an initiation report explains the company from scratch, while later reports only update what has changed.Locked: included in All Access11 min
2. 2. Recommendations, target prices and the investment thesisA research report opens with a rating backed by a target price and a short investment thesis explaining why the stock is mispriced and which catalysts should close the gap.Locked: included in All Access12 min
3. 3. The body of the report: business, peers, financials, valuation, risks and ESGBehind the rating sit the supporting sections: a business and industry description written for non-specialists, a carefully judged peer group, focused financial analysis, a valuation using more than one method, risks translated into numbers, and sustainability where it is material.Locked: included in All Access13 min
4. 4. Sell-side research: audience, constraints and incentivesSell-side research is written by investment banks and brokers for external clients; it follows standard formats, faces regulation designed to manage conflicts with banking and trading, and leans toward buy and hold ratings.Locked: included in All Access12 min
5. 5. Buy-side research, stock screens and activist short sellersBuy-side research is confidential and serves the firm's own decisions; a stock usually reaches a full report only after passing a screen built around the strategy, and activist short sellers are buy-side researchers who publish to move prices.Locked: included in All Access12 min
6. 6. Hard-to-value stocks and the growth rate implied by the priceWhen analysts disagree widely, setting intrinsic value equal to the market price and solving for the long-run growth rate shows what the market is assuming, and lets each analyst judge whether that assumption is too high or too low.Locked: included in All Access13 min
7. 7. Why analysts disagree: revenue, margins, investment and financingTwo analysts using the same model reach different values because they assume different revenue growth, margins, investment and long-run growth; a consistent forecast ties investment to growth, and financing should not be a source of value.Locked: included in All Access14 min