Spreading Comps - Hand spread vs. CapIQ Spread?

I just started my first year as an analyst at a boutique (actual boutique, 15 people) in NYC. In their comps analyses they typically just use CapIQ formulas to do the analysis and the only work involves generating the comp set. My intention is to lateral to a better shop after a year, and I want to be sure I have adequate modeling skills. Would it be worth the extra effort to practice hand spreading these comps analyses on my own time? I.E. doing the analysis manually by pulling all the filings and calculating EBITDA, multiples, etc. manually as opposed to using CapIQ formulas to do it all.

10 Comments
 

Best way to guarantee accuracy is to pull directly from filings.

That said...If you have a list of like of 20 comps, this exercise could take hours. If you right click on a number from CapIQ and hit "audit data" then you can see where it is pulling it from and either check all or spot check for accuracy.

The main area to be concerned about is EBITDA since they make their own adjustments. Again, you can see what numbers they are adjusting with the audit data function but it may not capture everything in the notes of the filings.

 

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