Becoming more knowledgeable and stronger interview candidate.

I'd recommend reading a bunch of equity research reports and learning the "language" which may be very different than what you would expect. Once you understand the commonalities, you can start building your own reports and model. Here's my mental model for pitching a stock fwiw: 

• The key is to follow a specific structure. That way, you will always know where you are in your pitch. 
• This is the structure that I recommend:
  • One-liner on the company 
  • One-liner on the company’s business model 
  • One-liner on the consensus view
  • Reason 1 for investing
  • Reason 2 for investing 
  • Reason 3 for investing 
  • One-liner to wrap it up
• Example for the company Chipotle:
  • One-liner on the company. Explain in very simple terms what the company does and the industry in which it operates. For most companies, a one-liner is sufficient but if you are pitching a less well known company or industry, you may need to add another line to provide additional context. Again, the key here is to explain things as simply as possible. Chipotle is a Mexican-inspired fast-casual restaurant chain with 3,000+ restaurant locations across the US/Canada, Europe, and Middle East. 
  • One-liner on the company’s business model. Since the ultimate objective is to explain why a stock is undervalued, it’s important to clarify the business model and how the company plans on generating earnings/cash flow in the future.  Chipotle generates the majority of their revenue from food and drink sales in their owned and operated restaurants. They also earn ancillary revenue from catering services and branded merchandise. Note: If possible, quantify the % coming from each revenue source. 
  • One-liner on the consensus view. Provide context on what is already baked in the stock. Keep in mind that you can only make alpha in the market by outperforming the current expectations in the stock. This also lets you set up your key reasons later. Market expectations are that intense competition and lack of innovative menu items will slow growth over the foreseeable future.
  • Reason 1 for investing. Provide your first reason why the market is underappreciating the stock. The consensus view is that Chipotle’s revenue growth will be 2% over the next two years. However, I believe Chipotle can achieve more than double the current expectations due to increased customer traffic, higher average transaction values, and successful expansion into new markets. Note: Provide additional data to back up your views. For example, you can discuss their history of introducing new menu items or recent expansion into new markets.
  • Reason 2 for investing. Provide your second reason. Chipotle is benefitting from positive structural industry trends and consumer preferences that the market is not fully appreciating…[List them here]
  • Reason 3 for investing. The last reason should be with regards to valuation. Even a great company would be an unattractive investment if priced too high. Determine the appropriate valuation metric for the company you are analyzing. In most cases, you’ll use valuation multiples as the primary valuation method. Each industry has a standard valuation multiple that investors utilize. For financial services firms, that is P/E or P/TBV; for high growth tech companies, it’s P/S; for mid-growth companies, that can be EV/EBITDA. Compare the company’s valuation ratio to their peers and against historical levels. Chipotle represents an especially buying opportunity given it is trading at an attractive valuation, with a EV/EBITDA multiple of 38x versus peers at 40x and 50x 5-year historical average. Assuming Chipotle can increase their EBITDA by $2B based on the reasons I outlined above, even if multiples contract to 20x, that would represent 75% upside to the current stock price. 
  • One-liner to wrap it up. Summarize your three points in a succinct manner. I believe Chipotle is an attractive investment opportunity due to its underappreciated revenue growth potential, encouraging structural industry trends, and attractive valuation.