Investment Finance.

Financial analysis is the process of evaluating businesses, projects, budgets and other finance-related entities to determine their performance and suitability. Typically, financial analysis is used to analyze whether an entity is stable, solvent, liquid or profitable enough to warrant a monetary investment. When looking at a specific company, a financial analyst conducts analysis by focusing on the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement.

Financial analysis can be conducted in both corporate finance and investment finance settings. In corporate finance, the analysis is conducted internally, using such ratios as net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) to find projects worth executing. A key area of corporate financial analysis involves extrapolating a company's past performance, such as gross revenue or profit margin, into an estimate of the company's future performance. This allows the business to forecast budgets and make decisions based on past trends, such as inventory levels.

In investment finance, an outside financial analyst conducts financial analysis for investment purposes. Analysts can either conduct a top-down or bottom-up investment approach. A top-down approach first looks for macroeconomic opportunities, such as high-performing sectors, and then drills down to find the best companies within that sector. A bottom-up approach, on the other hand, looks at a specific company and conducts similar ratio analysis to corporate financial analysis, looking at past performance and expected future performance as investment indicators.

Done by Yue Yang