Knowledge of fundamental analysis and security valuation is essential to assess the information content of financial statements, isolate the long-term value drivers of a business, and successfully implement trading strategies.

Investment bankers, asset managers, financial analysts, and private equity investors use fundamental analysis techniques to critically evaluate financial data and design complex valuation models to guide their strategic decisions.

The aim of this course is to help students become sophisticated users of financial information from a fundamental analysis perspective. The course consists of four integrated parts:

1. Strategy analysis
2. Accounting analysis
3. Financial analysis
4. Forecasting and valuation

Students are expected to develop security analysis and valuation skills to support the interpretation, evaluation, and use of financial information from the viewpoint of major users of financial statements (i.e. equity investors, corporate lenders, etc.). Ultimately, students will be able to analyse a wide variety of financial reporting issues and discuss their valuation implications drawing on cutting-edge academic research and real-world case studies, including Apple, Ferrari, Netflix, and Tesco.

Moreover, as recent trends in big data and predictive analytics are disrupting the way in which security analysts, portfolio managers, credit-rating agencies, and regulators collect and analyse companies’ financial disclosures, students will also learn state-of-the-art financial modelling strategies to perform meaningful analyses on real-world data.