MGT 185: Investment Banking: Research for Projections

Estimates in Refinitiv Workspace: Abundant Coverage

Investment banking reports help you easily find projections like earnings estimates. The best resources for this is Refinitiv Workspace.

Option 1: Do an individual company search

• Path: from the Company Overview, scroll down to the Latest Research section (just past News). (View 1)
   
• Click Latest Research to open the analyst reports' menu. (View 2)
• Filter for your best options. Filter menu is on the left column. (View 3)

  

  TIP: change the date dropdown from 'current 90 days' to latest 2 years; change the page count to >= 20. You may change the column width to suit your needs. You may keyword search on topics or phrases like "initiating coverage" to focus your search.

Option 2: Use the ADVRES shortcut

• Path: in top box type ADVRES
• The next view will show the filters followed by a list of reports.
  
  TIP: change the date from "current 90 days" to latest 2 years; change the page count to >= 20. You may search a specific company name, industry, geography or analyst from this form. Also, under topics, you can click "initiation" or another topic, which can focus your search. (initiation or initiating coverage reports are ones with more substantial analysis, often of the company and whole industry). (View 4, above).
   

Typical parts of these reports: up front are a summary of the earnings and revenues estimates. Later in the document is discussion of how the analyst came to that conclusion. Many reports also include a discounted cash flow analysis, and a more-detailed financials estimates toward the end of the document. Example of an analysts' report.

TIP: the best reports for this kind of analysis typically range from 20-60 pages in length. The shorter reports are more likely company event announcements rather than analysis of earnings estimates.
 

RETRIEVING A REPORT: When you find a report you like, click on the title to preview it. You can choose all or some of the pages. You can download or email to yourself.t

NOTE: Refinitiv Workspace has a 150-page/day download limit. This limit resets at midnight in your time zone.

Consensus Estimates in Mergent:Limited Coverage

Mergent Online gives you its own brand of earnings estimates. They are not as varied as the Thomson ONE/Investext reports. They may be useful if you have trouble accessing Investext or if you want a "second opinion" on earnings estimates.

Path > company search

• From the company profile, click Highlights (for the financial highlights)
• Scroll down to the Concensus Estimate section

Mergent also provides performance estimates (analysts' opinions) of the near-term company financial performance.

Path > company profile > Reports tab. Choose from: Summary Report, Fundamental Report and Expanded Fundamental Report.

Both Refinitiv and Mergent do a great job covering long-term debt (loans, bonds). Use whichever interface you'd like for this research.

LTD in Refinitiv Workspace

Refinitiv Workspace > Company Overview > scroll down to Capital Structure. Clicking here opens the Balance Sheet, and you can search debt to hone in on all debt categories, including LTD total.

Path 

Other paths to this same info - shortcut: [ticker] BAL or when you look at company overview go to tab Financials > Balance Sheet (View 1, above)

Get additional debt maturity details from the company profile. Path: Company Overview > Debt & Credit tab > Debt Overview. This section describes bonds and loans, both active and inactive. (View 2, right)

LTD in Mergent Online

Mergent Online does the best job with debt. Path from the Company Details view > Long-Term Debt sub-tab.

The report has an overveiw at the top and a list of individual contracts at the bottom, including maturity date, with clickable detail into Mergent/FTSE Russell Bond Viewer that provides issue details, ratings, corporate actions.

Betas: Using Refinitiv Workspace

Method A: Frequently you can get a beta from the Refintiiv Workspace analyst report you found.

• When you have your analyst report open, just search the document for "beta."

• The image to the right is an example of that section an earnings report featured in the earning estimates section. (View 1)

Method B: You also can get Refinitiv's beta calculations.

From a company overview, path: Peers & Valuation tab > Peer Analysis.

Shortcut: [ticker] PEERS.

In the "add column" box, type beta (choose plain 'beta' option; see View 2, abovve)

The column will appear at the very far right;.

Drag and drop it to the left, wherever is convenient for you. See View 3 for example of changing it to a column further left..