uValue - Analysts Are Now Irrelevant

So I just came across this free iPad app called uValue. Its created by a couple of professors at Stern and Dartmouth Business School and is essentially a skinned spreadsheet which values companies. It can do WACC (detailed and simple), APV (detailed and simple), dividend growth and even value options. All junior bankers are now irrelevant.

On a more serious and useful note, I've played around with it and it's a pretty good learning / quick valuation tool. You get little tutorials on how each valuation process works and it explains each of the inputs required, and then even shows the model and how it got to the implied Enterprise Value or Share Value. Also gives some 'Data Guidance' sheets which give industry averages for risk-free rates and cost of equity which could be useful for reference!

Seems useful if someone wants to know if a company is over/undervalued by fundamentals or what share price they should be looking at or even just to sense check a model output.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uvalue/id440046276…

13 Comments
 
Ron Paul
AsatarAll junior bankers are now irrelevant.
What about senior bankers? How will this affect the "rain making" deal makers like BlackHat?
 

too bad 95% of the time, you arent doing valuations - you are inputting numbers senior guys told you to and crank out ppt and cims. It would make more sense to just outsource this to india or china

 

analysts are a commodity but I wouldn't go so far as to say irrelevant. i've played around with this app, and while it's okay, by no means does it really capture all the inputs required to make a sound valuation. i'm pretty sure Damodaran would agree with this.

he's one of the first to argue that valuing an asset or a company is more of an art than a science. getting the mechanics down is relatively easy and any computer, app, or even dimwitted analyst can do it. but no two valuations are the same and the inputs and assumptions that go into a valuation are what ultimately drive the output. now, in today's world of investment banking, most analysts (including myself) are dissuaded from really thinking and adding value - even when we could and should - which is what makes many analyst roles so procedural and mindless...

Capitalist
 
Best Response

[quote=Asatar]So I just came across this free iPad app called uValue. Its created by a couple of professors at Stern and Dartmouth Business School and is essentially a skinned spreadsheet which values companies. It can do WACC (detailed and simple), APV (detailed and simple), dividend growth and even value options. All junior bankers are now irrelevant.

On a more serious and useful note, I've played around with it and it's a pretty good learning / quick valuation tool. You get little tutorials on how each valuation process works and it explains each of the inputs required, and then even shows the model and how it got to the implied Enterprise Value or Share Value. Also gives some 'Data Guidance' sheets which give industry averages for risk-free rates and cost of equity which could be useful for reference!

If good analysts blindly make spreadsheets with standardized growth rates, discount rates, and DCF templates, maybe we should be irrelevant.
Seems useful if someone wants to know if a company is over/undervalued by fundamentals or what share price they should be looking at or even just to sense check a model output.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uvalue/id440046276?mt=8[/quote]

 

The fact that the models aren't completely objectively based on public information, combined with the confidential nature of transactions makes machines and outsourcing limited in scope. Salespeople (your MD) will always need someone in the home office to crank out a bunch of last minute shit. Besides, who's going to pick up their coffee and dry cleaning?

Get busy living
 
UFOinsiderThe fact that the models aren't completely objectively based on public information, combined with the confidential nature of transactions makes machines and outsourcing limited in scope. Salespeople (your MD) will always need someone in the home office to crank out a bunch of last minute shit. Besides, who's going to pick up their coffee and dry cleaning?

androids

 

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