Help Identify a stock to use for practice

I'm doing some basic modeling and financial analysis practice.

Can anyone recommend a public company that meets the following parameters:
-Around or below $500M market cap
-Very simple 1-2 product business
-Minimal historical M&A

Doesn't necessarily have to be an amazing business, just looking for a very clean, simple business to work on and practice some stuff.

Appreciate it. Thanks.

8 Comments
 
Best Response

StarTek (SRT) is a pretty simple business (call center and business process outsourcing), small market cap ($140M) and has little coverage so should be interesting. There's an independent guy who writes reports on this company quarterly and they're pretty good in lieu of sell side research: http://www.omarsamalotanalysis.com/reports.html

JGW is another one I'd mention, very simple business of buying up structured settlements and other payment streams and then securitizing a bunch of them. On a cash flow basis essentially negative working capital (settlements are bought with warehouse funding line, and company is able to borrow more than purchase cost) Modelling is all about volume of purchases, spread between securitization rate and purchase rate, and fixed costs like advertising/etc. Interesting tax advantages too based on the GAAP vs tax accounting for these transactions. There's a Kerrisdale Capital report on JGW from earlier this year which has proved to be very optimistic, but is nonetheless a good intro.

 
Soldier of Fortune

Have you seen the JGW financials? Modeling those is anything but basic.. agree on SRT though.

For building a complicated 3 statement model like you would in banking, yeah, but modeling out cash flows based on a few core assumptions is not that difficult. The quarterly releases break down the adjustments separating out the effect of consolidating past securitizations and to model cash flow you need to make a few more adjustments. Accurately modeling out cash taxes is a bit difficult but Kerrisdale report is helpful to look at. Maybe not what OP is looking for but figured it's a pretty simple financial business and might be good to model something a bit different.

 

I am pretty new to the forum. But I really enjoy the energy sector. One company that I would love to see how you analyze is ticker $CRK

Market Cap: $360M They have operations in the Eagle Ford, TMS , Haynsville & San Juan Basin.

 

Omnis ratione quo rem optio est repudiandae hic exercitationem. Quibusdam aliquid magni id. Quam suscipit perspiciatis est optio. Est facilis voluptas reprehenderit ex velit sequi. Voluptas possimus dolor voluptatum ullam.

Ipsa fugit sunt aliquam molestiae. Doloribus qui nesciunt distinctio consequatur. Nostrum quasi odio voluptatem natus earum temporibus. Cumque corporis possimus similique quisquam omnis sint quidem. Et odio voluptatem eum et dolores possimus ipsa tempore.

Ab quos tenetur et expedita facilis. Soluta officiis libero ut quia esse ipsa. Et et velit qui itaque eveniet. Tempora mollitia eum nesciunt voluptate molestias ipsa. Qui perferendis labore id modi nobis et unde.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 97.1%
  • AQR Capital Management 96.2%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 99.0%
  • Millennium Partners 98.1%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.1%
  • Blackstone Group 96.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 95.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.1%
  • Point72 98.1%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.2%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.2%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.3%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (27) $464
  • Director/MD (12) $423
  • NA (9) $320
  • Engineer/Quant (86) $288
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (26) $284
  • Manager (4) $282
  • 2nd Year Associate (32) $253
  • 1st Year Associate (76) $192
  • Analysts (240) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (28) $146
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (282) $96
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”