The Research Analyst includes

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The Research Analyst

| Micro-Degree

skills certificate

The Accountant

| Skills Certificate
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13

Hours

11

Topics

100

Practical exercises

1

Exam

Quickly and confidently interpret financial data and statements, evaluate them and use the calculated information to build high-quality reports. Real company data and the latest rules are covered to ensure the methods used and skills developed are immediately applicable in the workplace.

Accounting Foundations

72 video minutes

0 excel exercises

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Video minutes 72

Excel Exercises 0

  • The purpose and different types of accounting (financial versus management accounting)
  • Users of financial statements
  • Introduction to the three main financial statements and explanation of key elements
  • Overview of the contents of financial reports
  • Introduction to accounting standards
  • The accounting equation
  • Explanation of accrual accounting, the matching principle, and capitalization

Financial Accounting Review

34 video minutes

3 excel exercises

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Video minutes 34

Excel Exercises 3

  • Making entries and ensuring the balance sheet balances
  • Preparing a balance sheet
  • Preparing an income statement from the entries to retained earnings
  • Preparing a cash flow statement from the entries to the cash account
  • A review of the different categorizations on the income statement, balance sheet, and the cash flow statement

Income Statements

61 video minutes

15 excel exercises

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Video minutes 61

Excel Exercises 15

  • Revenue recognition issues
  • Cost recognition issues
  • Identifying non-recurring items from the income statement, the MD&A, the notes to the accounts and the financial statement press release
  • Calculating EBIT and EBITDA for the historical year, and on an LTM basis

Earnings Per Share

27 video minutes

11 excel exercises

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Video minutes 27

Excel Exercises 11

  • Basic EPS calculations including weighted average shares
  • Dilutive securities: options (treasury method) and convertibles (as if converted)
  • Calculating recurring EPS

Working Capital

56 video minutes

12 excel exercises

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Video minutes 56

Excel Exercises 12

  • Inventory accounting including the impact on EBIT of LIFO and FIFO accounting choices (where relevant)
  • Accounts receivable and bad debts (identifying when companies are manipulating sales)
  • Accounts payable and accruals and the difference between them from a due diligence perspective
  • Other items including taxes payable, deferred revenue, and pre-paid items
  • Working capital and operating working capital and the cash impact of changes in operating working capital
  • Credit implications of working capital movements
  • Day ratios

Non-Current Assets

39 video minutes

11 excel exercises

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Video minutes 39

Excel Exercises 11

  • Gross PP&E, accumulated depreciation, depreciation expense and net PP&E
  • Building a simple forecast of fixed assets
  • Establishing the age of a company’s fixed asset base
  • Finite, and infinite intangibles including goodwill
  • A review of key methods of accounting for financial investments
  • At fair value through the income statement
  • Available for sale
  • Associate (equity method) accounting

Capital Structure

50 video minutes

14 excel exercises

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Video minutes 50

Excel Exercises 14

  • Debt issues and repurchases
  • Simple yield to maturity and all in cost calculations and understanding Original Issuer Discounts
  • Calculating net debt
  • Equity issuance and repurchases
  • The difference between authorized, issued and outstanding shares and multiple share classes
  • Other capital items: preference shares and convertible bonds
  • Leverage ratios
  • Debt liability maturity analysis

Accounting Ratios

41 video minutes

5 excel exercises

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Video minutes 41

Excel Exercises 5

  • Profitability ratios, including margins
  • Liquidity ratios, including operating working capital
  • EBIT and EBITDA for the historical year, and on an LTM basis
  • Leverage ratios, including net debt and interest coverage
    Asset ratios

Cash Flow Statements

25 video minutes

3 excel exercises

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Video minutes 25

Excel Exercises 3

  • Understanding how to categorize cash flows between operating, investing, and financing
  • Deriving a cash flow statement from two balance sheets and an income statement
  • Deriving a balance sheet from a cash flow statement and an income statement
  • Different cash flow statement presentations

Equity Method Investments

9 video minutes

5 excel exercises

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Video minutes 9

Excel Exercises 5

  • What are equity method investments?
    • Equity affiliates/associates
    • Joint ventures
  • Equity method accounting
    • Income statement
    • Balance sheet
    • Cash flow statement
    • Financial statement integration

Intro to Full Consolidation

68 video minutes

21 excel exercises

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Video minutes 68

Excel Exercises 21

  • M&A accounting overview
  • Balance sheet consolidation
  • Sources and uses of funds
  • Goodwill calculation
  • Income statement consolidation
  • Non controlling interests – NCI
skills certificate

Modeling for Research

| Skills Certificate
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4.5

Hours

63

Practical exercises

1

Exam

Learn how to build error-free models and robust financial forecasts, critical for investment decisions. This includes a critical analysis of an analyst’s case company model to explore error checking in models, value drivers in forecasts, and the use of ratio analysis to sense check forecasts.

Introduction to Modeling

66 video minutes

10 excel exercises

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Video minutes 66

Excel Exercises 10

  • Key settings
  • Formatting and layout standards
  • Building a simple income statement and balance sheet model, on one sheet, then across sheets
  • Balancing the balance sheet using the cash flow statement
  • Preparing the model for handover
  • Key formatting and putting the output into a pitch book

Three Statement Modeling with Iterations

59 video minutes

15 excel exercises

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Video minutes 59

Excel Exercises 15

  • Income statement construction and highlighting key numbers
  • Calculation schedules (PP&E, retained earnings, operating working capital, and debt)
  • Balancing the balance sheet with a cash sweep
  • Calculating interest using average balances
  • Circular references and iterations
  • Working with a circular reference switch
  • Preparing the model for handover
  • Key formatting and putting the output into a pitch book

Checking a Model for Integrity and Errors

36 video minutes

11 excel exercises

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Video minutes 36

Excel Exercises 11

  • Top ten errors
  • Auditing and error checking toolkit
  • Checking your own model
  • Checking someone else’s model

Financial Forecasting

86 video minutes

21 excel exercises

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Video minutes 86

Excel Exercises 21

  • Setting up a forecast template
  • Cleaning up historical numbers
  • Building top down and bottom up revenue forecasts
  • Revenue and margin drivers and scenario analysis
  • Capex and working capital forecasts
  • Detailed debt and equity modeling
  • Error and integrity checking

Quarterly Modeling

37 video minutes

6 excel exercises

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Video minutes 37

Excel Exercises 6

  • Quarterly modeling mechanics
  • Including the effects of seasonality in quarterly assumptions
  • Updating models for quarterly and annual results
  • Including FX movements in revenue forecasts
skills certificate

Valuation for Research

| Skills Certificate
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5

Hours

58

Practical exercises

1

Exam

Get to grips with using relative and fundamental valuation to determine a target price and master critical analysis of peer company multiples to explore value drivers and critical analysis of DCF assumptions. The content will include the valuation of a case company delivered using Articulate e-learning software. 

Equity to Enterprise Value Bridge to Modeling

32 video minutes

8 excel exercises

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Video minutes 32

Excel Exercises 8

  • Calculating equity value
  • Calculating enterprise value
  • Non-core items, debt equivalent items, and non-controlling interests
  • Calculating simple multiples
  • Illustrating the impact of leverage
  • Understand how growth rates, returns and multiples interrelate

Trading Comparables

52 video minutes

14 excel exercises

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Video minutes 52

Excel Exercises 14

  • Review choosing a comparable set of companies
  • Calculating enterprise value
  • Calculating LTM EBITDA and EBIT
  • Forward multiples and issues with consensus data
  • Understanding which operational ratios are important for the analysis

Trading Comps Analysis

59 video minutes

3 excel exercises

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Video minutes 59

Excel Exercises 3

  • What drives multiples
  • How to calculate and use forward multiples
  • How to calculate and use EV/Sales multiples
  • Which multiples to use for different industries and situations

WACC Analysis

30 video minutes

8 excel exercises

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Video minutes 30

Excel Exercises 8

  • Capital Asset Pricing Model
  • Calculating the WACC for the peer group
  • Interpreting the results
  • Establish a reasonable cost of capital for the target company

WACC approach

Discounted Cash Flow Valuation

50 video minutes

14 excel exercises

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Video minutes 50

Excel Exercises 14

  • Calculating free cash flows
  • Understanding how the operational ratios should develop over the financial forecast
  • Calculating the steady state and making relevant adjustments to the steady state cash flows
  • Making reasonable assumptions for long-term growth rates
  • Discounting to a deal date
  • Converting the enterprise value into an implied share price, making relevant adjustments for share options and restricted stock units

Return on Capital

77 video minutes

5 excel exercises

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Video minutes 77

Excel Exercises 5

  • Return on capital
    • ROE vs ROIC
    • The calculations in detail
    • ROIC in valuation analysis
  • Disaggregating multiples
    • P/E
    • EV/EBIT
    • Link to DCF
    • Understanding a company’s value drivers

Advanced Valuation Techniques

32 video minutes

6 excel exercises

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Video minutes 32

Excel Exercises 6

  • The value driver formula for calculating terminal value
  • Discounting with a variable valuation date and partial year discounting
  • Extending the WACC formula to include cash and other forms of financing
  • Sum of the parts valuation for conglomerates and companies with finance operations
skills certificate

Markets & Investing

| Skills Certificate
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4

Hours

30

Practical exercises

1

Exam

Discover all aspects of capital markets including equity and credit market products, ESG analysis, and learn how to make investment recommendations.

Capital Markets Fundamentals

16 video minutes

0 excel exercises

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Video minutes 16

Excel Exercises 0

  • Capital Markets – Value of the Market
  • Equity vs Debt
  • What is an IPO
  • Equity Capital Markets
  • Debt Capital Markets

Equity Investment Characteristics

14 video minutes

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Video minutes 14

Excel Exercises 0

  • Common stock
  • Preferred securities
  • Convertible bonds
  • Indices
  • Exchange Traded Funds
  • Equity multiples
  • Enterprise multiples

Equity markets & products

34 video minutes

8 excel exercises

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Video minutes 34

Excel Exercises 8

  • Cash Equities and Delta One
  • Stock Exchanges
  • The Order Book
  • Initial Public Offerings
  • Role of ECM versus Trading Desk
  • Trading Desk Functions
  • Convertible Securities
  • Exchange Traded Funds

Rates markets & products Analysis

39 video minutes

5 excel exercises

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Video minutes 39

Excel Exercises 5

  • Interest rate terminology and yield calculations
  • US government bond markets including TIPS and zero coupons
  • European government bond markets including index linked Gilts, Gilt strips, and other inflation-linked bonds (e.g. Germany)
  • Asian government bond market including JGBi
  • Yield curve
  • Central bank activity and impact to capital markets

Credit markets & product

41 video minutes

10 excel exercises

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Video minutes 41

Excel Exercises 10

  • Credit ratings
  • Credit spreads and implied risk premia
  • US corporate bond market
  • European corporate bond market
  • Specialist bonds including puttable, callable, contingent capital (coco), CLOs, CDOs, convertibles, and exchangeable

Investment Recommendations

33 video minutes

3 excel exercises

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Video minutes 33

Excel Exercises 3

  • Establishing a target price and rating
  • Rating systems
  • Consensus forecasts
  • Identifying ‘what is new’ in your analysis
  • Catalysts for stock re-pricing
  • Risks to your thesis

ESG Investing

47 video minutes

4 excel exercises

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Video minutes 47

Excel Exercises 4

  • The spectrum of ESG integration approaches
  • Understanding the different risk types:
    • Environmental risks
    • Social risks
    • Governance risks
  • Concept of materiality
  • Key techniques in ESG analysis
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Equity Analyst Expert Interview

| Completion Certificate
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0.5

2

Practical exercises

Curious to know what it’s really like to work as a research analyst? Get the answers to this and more in this expert interview with Victoria Collin, ex-Dresdner Kleinwort Equity Analyst.

Equity Analyst Expert Interview

25 video minutes

2 excel exercises

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Video minutes 25

Excel Exercises 2

  • Meet the Equity Analyst
  • Industry insights
  • Top tips for success
  • How to break into the industry

Skills & Learning Objectives in The Research Analyst Micro-Degree

Recognized by industry experts

Colin Evans

Managing Director at J.P. Morgan

Colin Evans is a Managing Director at J.P Morgan and leads the financial institutions coverage team globally for the Corporate Banking.

Dr. Bridget Lyons

Professor of Finance

Professor of Finance at the Jack Welch College of Business at Sacred Heart University and Associate Instructor.

Chris Bishko

CFO

CFO with over 25 years experience as an operator, investor and investment banker in technology and financial services.

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Wall Street Recognized Certification

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Complete a Micro‑degree to join our exclusive alumni

Sit beside the world’s best investment bankers on LinkedIn, and take advantage of exclusive must-have benefits for new and experienced analysts.

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