Studying a company
After reading an article about a company, or studying their earnings, what questions should I ask myself about the company?
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How does this company make money? What are the key drivers that impact revenue? What is its competitive position? Think about Porter's Five Forces. Marginal Revenue. Management strength. Insider transactions. Relative valuation. Free cash flow. The list can go on and on.
Okay, you said the list goes on and on...what else??? You're answer really, really helped by the way.
Industry-specific metrics. book valuation. short interest. EBITDA, EBITDA margin. how good is a company at generating revenue per $1 of R&D expenditure (assuming it's a high R&D business),
ultimately, the goal is to generate alpha. try to find insights analysts can't find. talk to suppliers, customers, former employees (be careful here, you really only want public info).
you should find an investment checklist if your just starting out. It'll help you analyze certain areas you may not have considered. There is infact a pretty decent book titled the investment checklist that would be a good answer to your question.
But overall, the questions you should ask are what makes this company different than it's peers in the comparable universe and how does that affect value? I suggest a public comps analysis. Take it a step further and include operating metrics, leverage ratios, beta, ROIC & ROA bencharmarking. Then just keep asking why...
Okay, so Comparable Companies analysis?
I agree with the above responses.
But honestly, best thing to do would be to read Peter Lynch's "One Up on Wall Street." It is a quick read, and it pretty much lays out exactly how you should go about analyzing a company when you are just starting out in the investment world. I found it extremely helpful.
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