I. Quick opinion. Summarize your analysis by simple numbers, including: Report Date, S&P value, Last Price (when the report is submitted), Intrinsic Value, Economic Moat, and Recommendations. Use the Morningstar style and put this session on the top your report.
II. The Theme: This part highlights your major insights into the company and its stock.
III. Economic analysis (15%)
IV. Industry analysis (15%)
V. Business Analysis: When you buy stock of a company, essentially you are buying the business. Analyzing a stock starts with understand its business.
Profile of company (in your own words)
Analysis of the company and the prospects of its major products and services. (10%)
Financial analysis: Major financial statements and ratio analysis. More important is forecasting the future. More specifically, a projection of sales, margins (gross margin, operating margin, profit margin), profits and most important, earning per share (EPS) for the coming year. (15%)
Stock Valuation: Calculating the fair current value (Intrinsic Value) of the stock. In theory, fair value (also called intrinsic value) is what the stock price should be given the market is free from errors. It can be calculated in various ways, depending on what model you use. Commonly used models are P/E multiples, Dividend discount models, and Free Cash Flow models. This analysis needs the help of analytical tools like Excel. Some reports also project expected stock price in one year. (35%)
Risk: It is the uncertainty of future stock performance and the business of the company.
Bulls vs. Bears: There are always bull and bear views for any stock. That is why at any price, there are buying and selling orders—the two side of the same coin of a transaction. Try to see the arguments for two sides.
VI. Investing strategy: this is your action plan as an investor. Your strategy choices include buy, sell, hold, wait, avoid, short, etc…
