Writing reports or notes expressing opinions is always a part of "sell-side" (brokerage) analyst job and is often not required for "buy-side" (investment firms) analysts. Traditionally, analysts use fundamental analysis principles but technical chart analysis and tactical evaluation of the market environment are also routine. Often at the end of the assessment of analyzed securities, an analyst would provide a rating recommending an investment action, e.g. to buy, sell, or hold the security. The analysts obtain information by studying public records and filings by the company, as well as by participating in public conference calls where they can ask direct questions to the management. Additional information can be also received in small group or one-on-one meetings with senior members of management teams. However, in many markets such information gathering became difficult and potentially illegal due to legislative changes brought upon by corporate scandals in the early 2000s. One example is Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure) in the United States. Many other developed countries also adopted similar rules. Financial analysts are often employed by mutual and pension funds, hedge funds, securities firms, banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and other businesses, helping these companies or their clients make investment decisions. Financial analysts employed in commercial lending perform "balance sheet analysis," examining the audited financial statements and corollary data in order to assess lending risks. In a stock brokerage house or in an investment bank, they read company financial statements and analyze commodity prices, sales, costs, expenses, and tax rates in order to determine a company's value and project future earnings. In any of these various institutions, the analyst often meets with company officials to gain a better insight into a company's prospects and to determine the company's managerial effectiveness. Usually, financial analysts study an entire industry, assessing current trends in business practices, products, and industry competition. They must keep abreast of new regulations or policies that may affect the industry, as well as monitor the economy to determine its effect on earnings. Financial analysts use spreadsheet and statistical software packages to analyze financial data, spot trends, and develop forecasts; see Financial modeling. On the basis of their results, they write reports and make presentations, usually making recommendations to buy or sell a particular investment or security. Senior analysts may actually make the decision to buy or sell for the company or client if they are the ones responsible for managing the assets. Other analysts use the data to measure the financial risks associated with making a particular investment decision. Financial analysts in investment banking departments of securities or banking firms often work in teams, analyzing the future prospects of companies that want to sell shares to the public for the first time. They also ensure that the forms and written materials necessary for compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations are accurate and complete. They may make presentations to prospective investors about the merits of investing in the new company. Financial analysts also work in mergers and acquisitions departments, preparing analyses on the costs and benefits of a proposed merger or takeover. There are buy-side analysts and sell-side analysts. Some financial analysts collect industry data (mainly balance sheet, income statement and capital adequacy in banking sector), merger and acquisition history and financial news for their clients. They normally standardize the different companies data to look uniform and facilitate their clients to do peer analysis. Their main objective is to enable their clients to make better decisions about the investment across different regions. They also provide the abundance of financial ratios calculated from the data that they gather from the financial statements that help clients to read the bottom line of the company. Many people mix up this with the data entry job but actually its far away from just data entry. Some financial analysts, called ratings analysts (who are often employees of ratings agencies), evaluate the ability of companies or governments that issue bonds to repay their debt. On the basis of their evaluation, a management team assigns a rating to a company's or government's bonds. Other financial analysts perform budget, cost, and credit analysis as part of their responsibilities. Analyst performance is ranked by a range of services such as StarMine owned by Thomson Reuters or Institutional Investor magazine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_analyst

• published: 30 Oct 2015
• views: 48