Financial Statement Analysis: A Practitioner's Guide - Hardcover

Fridson, Martin S.; Alvarez, Fernando

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470635606 ISBN 13: 9780470635605

Publisher: Wiley, 2011

Synopsis

The updated, real-world guide to interpreting and unpacking GAAP and non-GAAP financial statements 

In Financial Statement Analysis, 5th Edition, leading investment authority Martin Fridson returns with Fernando Alvarez to provide the analytical framework you need to scrutinize financial statements, whether you’re evaluating a company’s stock price or determining valuations for a merger or acquisition. Rather than taking financial statements at face value, you’ll learn practical and straightforward analytical techniques for uncovering the reality behind the numbers. This fully revised and up-to-date 5th Edition offers fresh information that will help you to evaluate financial statements in today’s volatile markets and uncertain economy. The declining connection between GAAP earnings and stock prices has introduced a need to discriminate between instructive and misleading non-GAAP alternatives. This book integrates the alternatives and provides guidance on understanding the extent to which non-GAAP reports, particularly from US companies, may be biased. 

Understanding financial statements is an essential skill for business professionals and investors. Most books on the subject proceed from the questionable premise that companies' objective is to present a true picture of their financial condition. A safer assumption is that they seek to minimize the cost of raising capital by portraying themselves in the most favorable light possible. Financial Statement Analysis teaches readers the tricks that companies use to mislead, so readers can more clearly interpret statements. 

• Learn how to read and understand financial statements prepared according to GAAP and non-GAAP standards 
• Compare CFROI, EVA, Valens, and other non-GAAP methodologies to determine how accurate companies’ reports are 
• Improve your business decision making, stock valuations, or merger and acquisition strategy 
• Develop the essential skill of quickly and accurately gathering and assessing information from financial statements of all types 

Professional analysts, investors, and students will gain valuable knowledge from this updated edition of the popular guide. Filled with real-life examples and expert advice, Financial Statement Analysis, 5th Edition, will help you interpret and unpack financial statements. 

About this title

About the Author

MARTIN FRIDSON is Global Credit Strategist at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, one of the world's largest asset managers. Over a twenty-five-year span with brokerage firms including Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, he became known for his innovative work in credit analysis and investment strategy. Fridson has served as president of the Fixed Income Analysts Society, governor of the Association for Investment Management and Research (now CFA Institute), and director of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

FERNANDO ALVAREZ is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance and Economics at the Columbia University Graduate Business School, where he teaches entrepreneurship finance. From 2003 until 2008, he was associate professor in the Finance and Economics Department and director of entrepreneurship programs at Rutgers Business School, Newark and New Brunswick. Alvarez has taught at New York University's Stern School of Business where he was associate professor on innovation and entrepreneurship, and Babson College where he was assistant professor of finance.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Financial Statement Analysis FOURTH EDITION

"I love this book. It helps to develop the questioning mind—the mind of a financial detective. It teaches the art of skepticism and critical thinking. Readers go beyond definition and calculation and learn interpretation."
—Philip L. Cooley, PhD, Prassel Distinguished Professor of Business, Trinity University

"Over my decades of involvement with high-yield bonds, Marty Fridson has been the leading speaker of truth. As he so accurately states in Financial Statement Analysis, the credit investor is required to engage in a game of cat-and-mouse with company management's intent on minimizing their cost of capital by putting a positive gloss on their financial statements. The Fourth Edition of Marty's terrific book is the bible on how to detect and deal with these efforts."
—Howard Marks, Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management

"Financial Statement Analysis is a unique text; it combines great academic work with numerous real-life examples to form a highly useful reference for equity investors, debt holders, and investors who straddle both asset classes. Whether you are an investor, an investment advisor, or a teacher, Financial Statement Analysis will prove very valuable."
—Margaret M. Cannella, former head of Global Credit Research, J.P. Morgan and Adjunct Professor, Columbia Business School

"Marty has seen it all! He has had a front-row seat to see the birth, death, and rebirth of the high-yield bond market . . . several times over! In the Fourth Edition of Financial Statement Analysis, Marty clearly demonstrates that despite the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002, and other attempts to curtail abuse of the system, one needs a critical analytical eye to be certain that management is not trying to obfuscate the truth. The case studies provide excellent and timely examples of some of the techniques that companies have used to mislead investors."
—Edward Z. Emmer, former global head of Corporate and Government Ratings and Equity Research, Standard & Poor's

"Those who read financial statements without understanding the strategic context in which they are written will land on the losing end of the gripping episodes with which bond-market legend Marty Fridson illustrates in the Fourth Edition of his classic reference, Financial Statement Analysis. And all of us who depend on the markets sending capital to its best use should hope that investors read this book first."
—David Musto, Professor of Finance, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

"This book rightly urges resolute skepticism when inspecting financial statements. Its great value, though, is in the plain-spoken stripping down of real-world and illustrative examples that show how to see past the numbers to the practicalities and incentives behind them—and so help analysts and journalists alike ask the right questions."
—Richard Beales, Assistant Editor, Reuters Breakingviews

From the Inside Flap

Financial statement analysis is an essential skill for individuals involved in investment management, corporate finance, commercial lending, and the extension of credit. Over the years, it has become an increasingly complex endeavor, as corporate financial statements have become more difficult to decipher. But with the Fourth Edition of Financial Statement Analysis, you'll learn how to handle the practical challenges that are part of the business.

Written by leading investment authority Martin Fridson and Columbia Graduate Business School Professor Fernando Alvarez, this reliable resource outlines the analytical framework needed to scrutinize financial statements, whether you're evaluating a company's stock price or determining valuations for a merger or acquisition. Fully revised to reflect new concerns and challenges in this field, the Fourth Edition of Financial Statement Analysis will put you in a better position to get past the sometimes biased portrait of a company's performance.

Divided into four comprehensive parts—Reading Between the Lines, The Basic Financial Statements, A Closer Look at Profits, and Forecasts and Security Analysis—this practical guide contains:

• Insights that will allow you to evaluate financial statements effectively in volatile markets and an uncertain economy

• Discussions on properly interpreting balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements

• Valuable new case studies of fraudulent reporting

• Tips for maximizing the accuracy of forecasts and a structured approach to credit and equity evaluation

• Revelations about how earnings can be exaggerated or even fabricated

• And much more

All too often, financial statements conceal more than they reveal. But by undertaking genuine, goal-oriented analysis—instead of simply going through the motions of calculating standard financial ratios—you can uncover the true financial condition of a company.

Filled with real-world examples and expertadvice, Financial Statement Analysis, Fourth Edition will help you excel at interpreting financial statements and enable you to use this information to make better business decisions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470635606
• ISBN 13: 9780470635605
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 400