Customer Reviews

Guide to Analysing Companies, Third Edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Concise, insightful and easy to read, this book is an excellent introduction for the ordinary people. The books reliance on examples - both real and fictitious - is what makes it stand out from rest of the crowd.

The first section introduces you to various pieces of information on the balance sheets, income and cash flow statements. There are no complicated equations or quick-fix formulate. Instead, there is discussion supported on the true meaning and significance (or insignificance) of various pieces of information that the companies report - what underlying information they reveal and how they can possibly be fudged. The second section brings the information together and shows the reader how to apply it to analyze the operations, trends, strengths and weaknesses of a company.

It is an invaluable tool for those who want to take charge of their investment portfolios and also for those who want a broader understanding of financial aspects of businesses. It will arm you with both the necessary information and the critical insight needed to unearth the truth beneath the numbers.

Bob Vause compiles a handy guide for even the layman to comprehend, in navigating through the frequently muddled world of investing. Choosing the right companies to trust with our investment dollars is a daunting enough task under "normal" market conditions; under the current recessionary climate, it's an absolute necessity to weed out the prenteders from the contenders.

Even then, there are no guarantees; the irrational behavior of investors continues to confuse even the most astute market experts. The past year has befuddled the entire world economic community, as trillions upon trillions of our hard earned dollars has evaporated into thin air.

Perhaps this book will help; it was published over four years ago, when the stock & housing markets were booming. The recent financial meltdown has been rehashed in many books with 20-20 vision; it appears "greed & hubris" have been the biggest culprits, and the vast majority of naive investors were completely fooled by it all.

What makes this book so valuable is its wise advice in spotting the danger signs of pending corporate doom or malfeasence. Investor beware, indeed. Be very careful; it's dangerous out there.

Rather than giving a bunch of formulas to use in Excel, this book actually tries to impart you some knowledge of real world.

While the knowledge maybe old hat for experienced stock analysts, it is NOT for new comers to the field.

And for the Excel script MBAs who try to reduce everything to an equation, sorry dudes.

This book attempts to make u first understand the purpose, goal, and results you would get in a analysis, and then goes about teaching you that analysis.

I think that Vause is too verbose, using 5 lines of mediocre prose to explain what he could and should have explained in 1 line of good prose.

I also think that he doesn't deal directly with the implicit, underlying assumptions of financial analysis. He definitely touches on these concepts, but he doesn't "knock them out of the park." I'm left feeling that he knows a lot more than he's able to clearly communicate.

'Guide to Analysing Companies' is not a useful book, and I can't see what author Bob Vause sets out to do. Simply proposing to "analyse" a company is vague. Analysis for what purpose? To understand auditors? Is this book for unversed board members? Fraud examiners? It's hard to think of anyone who would really benefit from reading this.

The first three sections appropriately tackle essential corporate data, but Vause's explanations are downright lousy. I kept thinking of 'Principles of Finance with Excel,' by Simon Benninga, which is so much more refreshing in its explanations. Benninga is a far better communicator and has a knack for useful, memorable anecdotes.

What really drove me bananas was how Vause always stopped short of showing how to actually use the metrics he explains. I agree that analyzing companies is an art, but it's not very satisfying to see a cursory introduction to a metric, the words "[x] ratio can be an indicator of [y]," and little else. This guide screams for case studies and examples. Do yourself a favor and just get a proper textbook instead or borrow a copy of The Intelligent Investor and read the chapters that compare companies.

Hm...I've had only 2 courses in Finance during my study so I thought I'm a beginner enough for this book but apparently I was wrong...I think you should only purchase this book if you have absolutely no idea about finance

There is a ton of fantastic information for researching investment opportunities in GUIDE TO ANALYZING COMPANIES by Bob Vause. The work is presented in 3 parts, Basics, Assessing the Facts, and Benchmarks. In Part 1 the chapters include annual reports, balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. In this section, the author demonstrates his vast knowledge of the history of accounting regulations and how and why they were implimented. In fact, in my opinion, too much time is spent on the why and not enough on the how.

Part 2 is the meat of the book and gets into measuring profitability and efficiency, working capital and liquidity, capital and valuation and finally strategy, success and failure. This is where you'll find useful information, but getting through it is a chore.

Part 3 is nothing more than an appendix and I'm not sure why the editor assigned it as part 3.

I learned from this book, but the presentation is dreadful. I have read electronics instruction manuals with more to capture and hold the reader's interest. In the end, the main thing I took away is this: no matter how diligent you are with your research, bean counters will always find a way to twist the numbers so that your research is mostly for naught.

So not the typical text book for a class so I am very satisfied. To be perfectly honet I had forgot I ordered the book it came so fast so I was totally satisfied.