How Do You Write a Stock Analysis Report?

While the big Wall Street firms pump out thousands of pages of stock analysis, you may have a different view on one or more stocks and want to get your ideas out into the marketplace. A well-crafted and organized stock analysis report can help other investors learn about stocks you have discovered. Once completed, the Internet offers many investment publishing opportunities. Putting your research out on the Internet will allow other investors to learn and profit from your analysis.

Structure your analysis reports to get the attention of investors and put your major findings out front, early in the report. One possible outline starts with an informational headline followed by an overview of the investment potential of the stock. The next section will be a table with important data about the stock and three to five key points about the company and its investment potential. The remainder and bulk of the report covers your in-depth analysis of the stock. As you do your research, this format will force you to dig for key points or concepts about the company.

A significant portion of your stock report will be your analysis of the company and the industry in which it operates. A top-down approach starts with the industry and covers the growth and profit potential. Then the individual company is analyzed in relation to the overall sector. A bottom-up approach focuses on the individual company with less emphasis on the business sector. With both types, cover how your stock is similar and different from the its market peers. The fundamental analysis will be heavy on the data, such as sales revenues, profit margins, historic and projected growth rates.

The whole point of your stock analysis report is to provide a future value estimate of the share price based on your research and the data you discussed in the analysis of the company. Just throwing a share price number out will not be sufficient. The report should include the reasoning or process you went through to produce your target price for the stock. Along with a target price, cover the risk factors that could prevent the stock from hitting the expected value.

Set your stock report apart from the pack by slanting the approach to specific types of investors. Some of the major investment themes include growth stocks, turnaround plays, dividend growth and high-yield stocks. If you know the stock fits best into one of these categories, write your title and the report with the specific type of investor in mind. Of course, you can cross up categories if you have a story to tell that will appeal to other types of investors. For example, you may want to show how a blue chip dividend growth stock is poised to become more of a share price growth story.