Praise for Financial Statement Analysis A Practitioner's Guide Third Edition
"This is an illuminating and insightful tour of financial statements, how they can be used to inform, how they can be used to mislead, and how they can be used to analyze the financial health of a company." -Professor Jay O. Light Harvard Business School
"Financial Statement Analysis should be required reading for anyone who puts a dime to work in the securities markets or recommends that others do the same." -Jack L. Rivkin Executive Vice President (retired) Citigroup Investments
"Fridson and Alvarez provide a valuable practical guide for understanding, interpreting, and critically assessing financial reports put out by firms. Their discussion of profits-'quality of earnings'-is particularly insightful given the recent spate of reporting problems encountered by firms. I highly recommend their book to anyone interested in getting behind the numbers as a means of predicting future profits and stock prices." -Paul Brown Chair-Department of Accounting Leonard N. Stern School of Business, NYU
"Let this book assist in financial awareness and transparency and higher standards of reporting, and accountability to all stakeholders." -Patricia A. Small Treasurer Emeritus, University of California Partner, KCM Investment Advisors
"This book is a polished gem covering the analysis of financial statements. It is thorough, skeptical and extremely practical in its review." -Daniel J. Fuss Vice Chairman Loomis, Sayles & Company, LP
Very surface coverage...at about $1.00 per page you should get more in depth analysis. Entire format of the book is very strange.
"Not recommended for Credit Analysts"
Written By: Anthony Johnson
This book is very basic. The solutions book for this book is difficult to read and I did not go anywhere with it. It is probably much better for a general overview of financial shenanigans than anything. If you are a credit analyst then a much better book and much more in depth analysis (not accounting though) is Financial Statement Analysis by John J. Wild and others. Get the CD though if possible because it will help out greatly.
"Great Value"
Written By: The Ugly Investor
I'm not a financial analyst but I'm interested in analysing companies for my own investments. I found the book easy to read. It's a big eye-opener for someone who was not aware of all the accounting gimmicks that aggressive companies can play. I'm certainly a better investor now.
That being said, please note that this book won't tell you much about what you need to do to value a company and invest in it. It will help you spot troublesome companies and accounting tricks that don't look right, but after that you're on your own. You need more than this book to be a good investor, but this book is a pretty important part of being a good investor.
"Definately for the Practitioner"
Written By: R. Polakowski
I needed this book for a Financial Statement Analysis class. It is a decent book, full of examples, so that makes it very interesting; however, the themes are very repetitive. It not an exciting book by any stretch, but it does have some usefulness.
"excellent analyst-level text"
Written By: rhyno
in all likelihood, average investors will not get much out of this book, as average investors don't pore over 10-ks, annual reports and conduct industry analysis prior to investing (which they should!). but for those above average investors who do (read: intelligent investors, per ben graham), this book is an excellent read.
2/3 of the book deals w/ alterting the investor to some of the areas where company mgmt can play games w/ the #s in order to goose the stock price. the examples were helpful, but the insights were not exactly earth shattering for experienced investors.
however, the last 1/3 of the book, on forecasts & security analysis, is worth the price of the book. in 100pgs, you get an MBA-level text on security / credit / financial statement analysis, complete w/ ratio definitions, caveats(!), and applicability. excellent stuff for the beginning or experienced analyst, and i will doubtless refer to the last 1/3 time and again.