Contrary to another reviewer, English employs excellent examples to clarify and explain his points. Some examples: Gateway 2000's earnings history was used to explain how to find and interpret non-recurring items (NRI) on financial statements. Ratio analysis was demonstrated by looking at the PC industry in 1998. Emerson Electric was the company chosen to show why mature companies were still good buys. Many other examples abound, and English does a successful job in tying their relevance to his arguements.

But successful use of examples is not just the only strength of the book. The author also tackles a range of topics complete with insightful and clear discussions: the flaws of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), Economic Value Added (EVA), financial statement analysis, fundamental analysis, etc.

A quick glance at the table of contents below gives you an idea of the scope of English's book. I highly recommend this book to not just Wall Street analysts, anyone who is interested in finding fundamental value in evaluating stocks instead of following the crowd.

Pt. 1 Getting Started
Ch. 1 A Day in the Life
Ch. 2 Fundamentals of Equity Valuation
Ch. 3 Strategy and Competition I: The Firm's External Environment
Ch. 4 Strategy and Competition II: The Firm's Internal Competitive Resources
Ch. 5 Fundamentals of Stock Behavior
Pt. 2 The Basic Tools
Ch. 6 Reading a Financial Statement: The Accuracy, Sustainability, and Predictability of Financial Information
Appendix 6-1 Gateway Financial Statements
Ch. 7 Reading a Financial Statement: the Composition of Returns
Appendix 7-1 Comparative Financial Analysis: Personal Computer Industry
Ch. 8 Reading a Financial Statement: Early-Stage Companies and Investment Capacity
Ch. 9 Reading a Financial Statement: Later-Stage Companies and the Transition to Maturity
Ch. 10 Economic Value Added: An Alternative to Traditional Analysis Techniques
Appendix 10-1 Gateway's Cost of Capital
Pt. 3 Financial Models
Ch. 11 Financial Modeling: Base Case Assumptions and Model Design
Appendix 11-1 Dell Computer Corporation Consolidated Statement of Income
Ch. 12 Financial Modeling: The Income Statement and Balance Sheet
Ch. 13 Financial Modeling: The Statement of Cash Flows
Pt. 4 Equity Valuation
Ch. 14 Valuation: Foundations and Fundamentals
Ch. 15 Combat Finance: Relative Methods and Companion Variable Models
Ch. 16 Hybrid Valuation Techniques
Ch. 17 The Quirky Price/Earnings Ratio
Ch. 18 Valuation of Speculative Stocks
Ch. 19 Equity Analysis and Business Combinations
Pt. 5 Getting It Down on Paper
Ch. 20 Financial Writing: Don't Bury the Lead
Bibliography
Index

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:


One of the Best  Nov 01, 2005 By DJ
There are reams and reams of investment valuation books on the market -- that is obvious.

In my opinion, the three no one should be without are Applied Equity Analysis, Stephen Penman's monster tome "financial statements and...", and lastly, Aswath Damadoran's book, "investment valuation."

Most hyperventilating MBAs default to Damadoran; I really enjoy the simplicity behind Applied Equity Analysis.

Caution: Neither of the 3 are what you'd call "light reading."

If you have any money left, honorable mention goes to Cooke's "security analysis on wall street."

22 of 26 found the following review helpful:


for SELL-SIDE analysts only  Jan 14, 2006 By catweazle
I bought this book based on the strong reviews as a complement to Damodaran's classic on valuation, but felt disappointed.

To qualify my comments: First, I am not a sell-side analyst, and secondly, I haven't finished the book. After about 50 pages, I threw in the towel.

My first stylistic objection to the book is its low content density. There is tremendous repetition and examples are trotted out in excruciating detail, even where the conclusions are fairly obvious. For example, on p. 34: "At competitive equilibrium, the firm can identify no incremental investment opportunities likely to generate returns in excess of capital costs. Competitive equilibrium is often defined as a condition in which investment opportunities generate returns equal to capital costs, but existing investments continue to earn abnormal rates." To me these two sentences are already redundant. But in case you still didn't get it, further DOWN on the SAME PAGE: "...This situation is called economic equilibrium, or economic parity. What does equilibrium mean? When returns are forced down to capital costs, then economic rents and/or abnormal earnings disappear and no further incentive to enter the business exists".

But the most frequently repeated point of the first two chapters, is best summed up on p. 19: "As I say many times in the coming pages [and he's not kidding, there], equity analysis is not prophecy; it's opinion. It was never meant to be objective description, but it is strong advocacy." If you're the sell-side analyst, having to "dress up a pig" to help your firm gain some banking business, this book might offer some ideas. But where does this leave the consumer of such analysis? "It's the investor's job to 'diversify' by considering a variety of analysts' positions." (p.9)

I think better advice for the investor might be to learn how to perform sound analysis themselves. For that, I recommend Damodaran's book. I lost my faith in this book's intent to provide balanced (let alone predictive) analysis.

12 of 13 found the following review helpful:


Probably the best  Jul 15, 2004
I've been looking for a practical step by step book on equity analysis from a practitioners viewpoint. This is it. Other books try to take shortcuts. This book does not take short-cuts, but neither is it bogged down with unncessary academic exercises. If you really want to understand how to do valuation and applied equity analysis I can't recommend any book more highly. It is head and shoulders above anything else out there. Penman's book (from Columbia Business School) is also good but it is a VERY serious and weighty book that probably should only be attacked after you have read this one. Get this book by English and you will not be sorry. I have spent way too much time reading hundreds of other books that weren't nearly as educational. Again, however, it is only for the serious investor.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:


great book for those in finance  Jun 20, 2006 By B. Murray "FP&A Guy"
This book is great if you're in the field of finance. This is not for the average consumer looking for investment advice. I've been in corporate financial planning and analyis for the past five years and always wondered how equity analysts built their models. This books will give you insight into their thinking and also give enough detail to build your own models. I would have rated it five stars if the book included a CD with his examples in Excel. The author does have website where you can download sample models.

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