First Steps

Hi all, after doing some general finance reading for the last month, I'm going to start practicing doing equity research on a sector and learning how to develop stock pitches.

So say I want to start following the retail sector. Should I start by looking at the 10-ks and financial statements of a bunch of major companies?

After getting a general feel for the players, how should I evaluate an opportunity?

I read that stock pitches should have numbers. Where am I going to get the numbers? Do I need to make predictions/projections and plug it into some models to try to "value" the companies I'm pitching/researching? And how complicated should my models be/what are the models ppl generally use?

How do I justify a statement like "this stock should be valued at around price X instead of price Y"

I know I can do more research on google and wso which I'll do but I thought it'd be helpful to hear from you experienced guys directly as well. I know I asked a bunch of questions but any responses would be great.

Thanks a lot!