Financial Analysis Fundamentals

Name: Financial Analysis Fundamentals
Rating: 4.89 (1701 reviews)

This practical course in financial analysis teaches you how to conduct a comprehensive financial evaluation of any organization. You’ll learn to use a range of ratios derived from financial statements, and you’ll also discover best practices for presenting your findings in Excel.

Calculate and interpret ratios using a company’s financial statements.
Perform in-depth vertical and horizontal analysis to understand how a business could improve operations, capital structure, and asset utilization.
Use the DuPont pyramid of ratios to get a more comprehensive view of a business.

Get Started

Free preview

Overview

Financial Analysis Fundamentals Course Overview

Financial analysis is a crucial aspect of assessing a business’s financial health. It offers insights into performance and highlights potential vulnerabilities. In CFI’s “Financial Analysis Fundamentals” course, we will compute and interpret ratios for three different companies, offering insights into their profitability, asset utilization, leverage, and liquidity. Subsequently, we will compare these companies, examining trends, benchmarking, and delving into the DuPont Pyramid.

Financial Analysis Fundamentals Learning Objectives

Calculate and interpret various return ratios, such as return on equity and return on assets.
Conduct an in-depth vertical analysis of the income statement, including the calculation and interpretation of different profitability ratios.
Assess a company’s asset utilization efficiency including undertaking a detailed assessment of its work capital.
Calculate and interpret a wide range of leverage and liquidity ratios.
Conduct and present a comprehensive horizontal (trend) financial analysis.
Compare a company’s performance against that of its industry peers to gain valuable insights.

Recommended Prep Courses

These preparatory courses are optional, but we recommend you to complete the stated prep course(s) or possess the equivalent knowledge prior to enrolling in this course:

Who should take this financial analysis course?

This financial analysis course is perfect for any aspiring financial analyst working in investment banking, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), equity research, corporate development, and other areas of finance and accounting. This class counts as continuing professional education (CPE) credits for CPAs. For further CPE information, please read before purchasing: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/about/cpe-information/

Financial Analysis Fundamentals

Led by Scott Powell

Get Started

Level 3

Approx 5h to complete

100% online and self-paced

Get Recognized With CFI

See All Certification Programs

What you'll learn

Lesson

Multimedia

Exams

Files

Introduction

Course Introduction

Course Slides

Profitability and Return Ratio Analysis

What is the Best Practice Financial Analysis

Critical Tips for Effective Financial Analysis

Financial Analysis Ratio Categories

The Three Financial Statements

Return Ratios

Downloadable Files

Model Overview

Return Ratios Walkthrough

Return Ratios Practice

Interactive Exercise 1

Profitability and Expense Ratios

Tax and Interest Ratios

Profitability and Expense Ratios Walkthrough

Profitability and Expense Ratios Practice

Interactive Exercise 2

Asset Utilization Analysis

Introduction to Asset Utilization Ratios

Additional Tax Ratios

Cash Turnover and Days

A/R Turnover and Days

Inventory Turnover and Days

A/P Turnover and Days

Working Capital Defined

Combining Working Capital Days Ratios

Asset Utilization Ratios Walkthrough

Asset Utilization Ratios Practice

Interactive Exercise 3

Leverage Analysis

Introduction to Financial Leverage Ratios

Example of Low Leverage

Why Increase Debt Rather than Equity

Optimal Leverage

Total Assets and Total Liabilities to Equity Ratios

Debt to Equity and to Tangible Net Worth Ratios

Debt and Net Debt to EBITDA Ratios

Leverage Ratios Walkthrough

Leverage Ratios Practice

Interactive Exercise 4

Liquidity Analysis

Current and Quick Ratios

EBITDA to Interest Ratio

Liquidity Ratios Walkthrough

Liquidity Ratios Practice

Interactive Exercise 5

Trend (Horizontal) Analysis

What is Trend Analysis

The Benefit of Trend Analysis

Downloadable File

Trend Analysis Walkthrough

Growth Ratios

Growth and Degree of Leverage

Downloadable File

Operative Leverage Scenario

Financial Leverage and Growth

Financial Leverage Scenario

Peer and Industry Benchmarking

What Is Benchmarking

Industry and Peer Group Benchmarking

Picking Peer Group for Benchmarking

Download

Benchmarking Walkthrough

Interactive Exercise 6

Pyramid Analysis

Background to the DuPont Pyramid

Breaking Down the DuPont Pyramid

Big Retailer 3 Step DuPont Pyramid Walkthrough

Mid Retailer 3 Step DuPont Pyramid Practice

Small Retailer 3 Step DuPont Pyramid Debrief

Interactive Exercise 7

Downloadable Files

Summary

Course Summary

Qualified assessment

This Course is Part of the Following Programs

Why stop here? Expand your skills and show your expertise with the professional certifications, specializations, and CPE credits you’re already on your way to earning.

Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA)® Certification

Financial Analysis Fundamentals is part of the Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA)® certification, which includes 41 courses.

Skills Learned Financial modeling and valuation, sensitivity analysis, strategy
Career Prep Investment banking and equity research, FP&A, corporate development

Learn More

What our students say

Engaging course material
Would highly recommend this course to fresh graduates joining the investment industry.

Mary Tamarua

GOOD
Great course to understand the beggining of corporate finance, reports and analysis.

Mariano Ruiz de Chavez Macias

Financial Analysis fundamentals
It was a great experience. Wish there was more tasks throughout the course to challenge my knowledge.

Vugar Aliyev

I was hesitate taking the course due to my lack of experience in finance. I knew it was going to be a steep learning curve but Scott's confidence and expertise really channeled confidence and curiosity to continue learning. After 30-40 hours of taking his course, I'm so glad I followed through!

Sunny Bae

PLEASE TAKE THIS COURSE TO GROW YOUR ANALYITICAL SKILL

MUSSIE MULUKEN

The exercises can be harder. The excel sheet has everything written down (equation of ROA as an example). Students should be able to figure out what the equation of ROA is instead of being listed on the sheet.

James Choi

Great Experience
I loved every of the lecture videos

Titilope Adelekan

well structured and balanced learning resources.

Frank-wisdom Tochukwu Ejoor

its would be great if you focus more about building the required skill set in presentation in excel to illustrate the chart and order report

Ayman Hamoush

Happy
The courses have effective and efficient enough to work through intellectual content swiftly

Marissa Dennis

I am lucky
I bought this course in-toto when CFI was selling per course instead of nowadays which is yearly subscription. I am not a finance guy, and I took three years from 2019 to finish this. I got abundant time to get the feel of the course and get a toehold on the subject. And now I can go back and do the course again (and again) with no extra cost. I think I will master the subject ;)

Neeraj Shrivastav

I really appreciate the course and the way it has been delivered

Emad Makram Kaldas

Good experience
It was a insightful experience

Tiberius Steinbach

Fantastic and it's very important in career
Great and very important in professional life

JALAL HASSAN MOHAMEDIN

Excellent Course
Setting up and using the templates was very good. highly recommend this course.

Troy Bahley

I have been enrolled for FMVA programme prepared by CFI and I have enjoyed my learning , which enable me to develop my skills in a new way and give me confident. All the materials are well structured and very helpful to understand your domain area as well as your career. Thanks to all the experts who have spent their valuable time to help others like me in developing our skills. Honestly, I have been graduated from the university where I learned a lot of theories which are not really required by recruiters when looking for job. But CFI through their expertise, I now feel confident and equipped with relevant skills required by many recruiters.

Ade Kasereka Bakwanamaha Vickya

Amazing Content
I've read a lot of books and I've watched countless hours of video content on financial analysis. This course is by far the best I've experienced so far.

James Agius

I really appreciate the course and the way it has been delivered

Pierre Patrick MANDENGUE EKOBO

Quite profound course with thorough and complete materials, but still I would like to see with instructor real world case and to review and analyze financial statements of few companies to confirm the knowledge and skill

Ansar Maratuly

Great
I loveed the circle pop up in the corner while we can see the instructor's face. It kept me focused rather than distracted by the lack of face to face engagement.

Kawthar Alamodi

Gained essential analysis skills
well explained course with lots of good examples. Thanks alot :)

hassan raza

Very interesting and professionnal
I enjoyed how they delivered the course, with examples, exercises

Rabefiringa N. Paula

Great first course
Clear and valuable for my daily work

Manuel Ferrer Massanet

Amazing
I have learned a lot about financial analysis and I am pretty confident that it will benefit me professionally.

Elina Ricotso Chiluvane

Very Helpful & Fruitful Course
I enjoyed this course very much

Hany Keleg

Good course for understanding financial statements
If you have a hard time analyzing financial statements at a glance, coming out of this course you will have a deeper understanding of how small line items in the financials impact the overall view of any company.

Stacy Daniel

Fun and Informative
its so engaging and i love the revision at the beginning of each module

Luiza Shapa Da Silva

Top Notch
I'll recommend this to my loved ones any day any time

Oladapo Obansere

Fundamental Module helps
Since my Business Administration studies ended already 4 years ago, the fundamentals module really helped to refresh my knowledge, before diving deeper into number the crunching. Besides that, as a German native I've learned valuable English finance terms which really helps in an international environment. Let's see how the upcoming modules are structured...

Thomas Hayek

Great Courses
Short courses that are easy to understand, and a great opportunity to review basic financial analysis knowledge.

Byravi Wigneshwaran

Please Fix the subtittle font size, it has taken up 1/3 of the screen

Son Nguyen

I love this fundamental
The more I review, I learn something new. A great course for a subject which is very useful.

Debasis Sengupta

Complex subject made easy
Learned and understood more from this than from attending a live course.

Ashraf Qurashi

a Great short course
strongly recommended for a great revision about financial analysis fundamentals

Hassan Nasr Hassan

Supportive and helpful
The course is full of everything you need for understanding the basis of financial analysis while doing some financial models.

Héctor Botella Malagón

Good Course
This course will definitely improve your analysis skills

Anika Clarke

Financial Analysis
Very easy to understand and a helpful course.

Isabel Ramirez

Engaging and Headon
Thank you CFI for what I know today

ROGER ANYE NDE

Enjoyable and informative
This course is very worthwhile and a great refresher and beginning to the FMVA course.

Colm Heatley

Great crash course on Ratio Analysis and financial statement interpretation
This course includes everything the title suggests. Great course!

Neema S

Positive Experience
Course focuses on practical experience rather than theoretical knowledge. Well done guys

Jamal Dajani

Financial Analysis made simple
Content has been curated in a manner that's easily relatable to real life work experience.

Lucy Jonga

Really enjoyed going through the course.

Abdul Baseer

Satisfaction
I enjoyed learning the course and taking interactive exercises.

Kyiphyu Zaw

Great experience
This course took all the subjects I studied during my undergrad and grad school, summarized them, and taught them in a deep but easy-to-understand way.

Lorenzo Paci

Great course to learn all the fundamentals of financial analysis
This is not an easy course, and taking notes definitely helped me. But after it I do feel like I have a grasp on financial analysis.

Evgeniya Nazarova

Exceeded expectations
Essential information, to the point, clear explanation, great material for homework, nice tone and pace of voice. Nice data for external references (benchmarking session).

Carolina Maria Moreno Acosta

Skill Equipping
This course equipped me with just the knowlegde i needed.

Sylvia Namata Ssekabunga

Very informative
Clear explanation of financial analysis basics

Naman Bhatt

Fantastic
I found it very interesting and explanatory.

John Idowu Odumeso-Jimoh

HELPFUL
i have enhanced my knowledge about the Fintech business modela and operations

Sakibu Sanfo Iddrisu

Great learning experience
The course offers videos that effortlessly captivate the viewer's attention, making the learning experience both enjoyable and enriching.

Mikael Kemppainen

Thank you for preparing this course.

Wondwosen Zeleke

So far so Good
The module is a great refresher.

Tokoloho Mokoena

The instructors explains the subject matter in a way that made the literature and concepts easy to digest.

FLOYD FRASER

Awesome
Very knowledgeable and useful course.

Lim Eng Wee

Grateful
I have been searching courses of finance in an chance to retake my career. Taking this course and recap what I learned back in university in clear way makes feel happy and knowing that I took the best choice.

Christian Suarez Vera

Information overload
The materials are too much perhaps it could be reduced because it is overwhelming to me to be downloading multiple files. They could be merged and reduced.

Azeez Oladimeji

FMVA
The course content is very clear and easy to use. I suggest taking notes, and reviewing. Everything connect very well for a clear WHY instead of just a WHAT. It's a great course! I greatly recommend.

Riley Morris

A really useful course
Gives you the essentials of how to move ahead and start analysing financial information presented to you in real life.

Ahmed Abdulmalek Ali

Amazing experience
Even though I have Master in Finance, taking this course it really have refreshed a lot of my knowledge and it increased it.

Amir Imeri

Superb
Come with your notepad because there is a lot to write down

Unaeze Daniel

Good cost effective investment
I wish there were more tests and questions to try out my newly gained knowledge.

Levi Medeiros Pinheiro

Responsive team
Thank you to Ritesh for answering my question swiftly. Overall very informative, highly enjoyed the session :)

Mercy Kimetto

Loved it
Learnt a lot in so little time.

Seyitan Teidi

More than satisfied with this course
The course structure is clear, the contents are easy to follow and the quality of the content is simply superb!

Yutian Song

Excellent strong basis
I already had knowledge in Finance but this course allows me to really have a full strong basis to understand and have a critical thinking when reading a company's financial statements. At the end of this course you really are capable of doing a good first financial analysis of a company on your own.

Edwin Keff Bello

Straightforward and informative
Quick and simple, easy to understand

Wing Hei Chan

Just WOW. Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.

Tebatso Godwin Jokonya

Excellent Course
Very informative and well structured.

Brian Gordon

Awesome and Helpful Courses
CFI curriculum is helping me a lot to enhance my knowledge in Finance and accounting. Can't wait to continue my learning journey until finish

Arvin winatha

great
its really great experience .good job CFI team

Mohamed Kaabi

Good Overview
Great use of the DuPont Analysis System

Daniil Ostroumov

Great job! Thank you

Nader Elsayed Elsayed Eldeeb

Extremely well-structured course that beats the learning offered by degree courses.

Dhiraj Sharma

Its a well engaging platform
grab your mind at one place and get going with CFI Study Material

Yogita Sangtani

Financial Fundamentals Analysis
It was a lot of information and well done!

Benson Yoder

Very helpful to serious learners who are already working adults
CFI is one of the rare places where I can get to learn the knowledge required in the working environment, and probably the only one that offers this kind of program on-demand.

Loh Ting Cheong Andrew

Great Experience
Comprehensive view of the fundamentals of financial analysis

Nick Chandler

Great
Kindly create mobile app

Sadanand Maheshwaram

Interesting
I really like the content and how the program is structured, highly recommended

Victor de Gregorio Sanchez

Well done!
Well organized, lucidly explained. I am totally impressed. Keep up the good work!

Ali Lone

Starting from basic analysis, all the way to make a robust pyramid analysis is one of the most fun procedures of learning I had since my birth.

Omar Almuzaini

Very well structured
The course material is relevant to the field of finance and is explained in a clear, concise fashion by the instructors. The inclusion of Excel examples is eye opening.

Phakamile Ngcobo

Very Insightful
The course is engaging.

Felix Odhiambo holder of ID Number 37164048

Great refresher on financial analysis!
The course could not be more precise and practical.

Ricardo Delgado

Useful content delivered professionally
Feels like you're in a lecture. Great recap for me.

Rufaro Munzara

Detail Explanation, Enough Example
There might be better if the questions or exercise has two levels of difficulty. One is easy and one is harder where we need to think more to solve :)

Jovi Abelpiero

My first learning experience with CFI
It is very user-friendly to go through the CFI interface. The course materials are well presented.

Audrey Carrel Manga Ondoua

YOU PEOPLE HAVE BEEN A BLESSING TO MY LIFE
THANKYOU FOR ADDING MORE VALUE UNTO ME

JOANNE PRECIOUS NAMUYINGO

First certificate and a great experience
The course materials were very explanatory & educating. Also the instructor was very knowledgeable.

Farrokh Golpour

Informative, and Flexible

Alvin Mugisha

It was awesome!
It is a good refresher for professionals with a business administration background.

Carrence John Artiola

Great
I'm an Econ major trying to get into the finance industry. Best course available to get you introduced to financial concepts.

Nicholas DAmato

Very insightful
The course is very detailed and insightful. Thanks.

Mutiu Ademoye

Great Experience...
It was a very much effective course...

Md Abdus Samad

great analysis course, broad
great intro to analysis, would like to see more "why"

Kevin Winters

It was practical and engaging. I had fun learning this course, and I can't wait to continue the other courses, and applying the knowledge I gathered from this course

SAMUEL KOBLA MORKLI

It was practical and engaging. I had fun learning this course, and I can't wait to continue the other courses, and applying the knowledge I gathered from this course

SAMUEL KOBLA MORKLI

Amazing

Wesley Shitakha

Frequently asked questions

What are the requirements to take the courses?

All of our certification programs are open to students and professionals in various industries and levels of experience. Our curriculum is designed to teach what you need to know from basic fundamentals to advanced practical case studies. To take the courses and complete the exercises, students will only need access to a PC and/or Mac, Microsoft Suite (2016 or newer), and a stable internet connection. Click here to view the Technical Requirements

Can I download the Excel files and financial modeling templates for the course?

Absolutely! All the files and templates needed in a course are available for download. Just look for a module that shows Downloadable Files within the course dashboard. See here for a visual guide on how to do this.

How long do I have to complete the courses?

You will have yearly access to the courses as long as you maintain an active subscription. All the courses are self-paced as well so you can take your time in learning without worrying about any deadlines. Click here to compare our available enrollment options.

Are CFI courses officially accredited?

Yes, CFI is accredited by the Better Business Bureau® (BBB) to maintain training standards, the CPA Institutions in Canada, and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) in the USA. Most of our courses qualify for verified CPE credits for CPA charter holders. Please refer to this page to view all available CPE credits.

Are there any additional fees or costs?

None! The bundle price includes everything and there are no additional fees or charges to earn your digital certification. You can see our enrollment fees listed here.

What currency are your courses priced in?

All our online courses are priced in USD. As this is a recurring payment, we accept all major credit and debit cards including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

How do I earn my certificates?

Students must complete all the video lessons, quizzes, and final assessments in each course. You can retake the assessments as many times as necessary until you reach an 80% passing grade. For more information on how to earn a course certificate, click HERE.

How are the exams conducted?

Students are required to complete an online assessment (Multiple choice questions, Fill-in-the-Blanks, and Excel Questions) at the end of each course. You can take the exams on your own schedule and will need to earn at least 80% to pass the course and earn your certificate of course completion. Please note that course exams can be repeated as many times as you need. Students are also required to complete the FMVA® final exam to earn their certification. How to Take a Qualified Assessment

Can I email the instructor if I have questions?

While the courses are designed mainly for self-study, we are happy to provide email assistance for general or technical support inquiries. The Full Immersion bundles include a premium email support function that allows you to communicate directly with in-house experts regarding course content. This is one of the key features that sets the Full Immersion bundle apart and makes it a worthwhile upgrade over the more affordable self-study bundle. You can compare more features in our bundles here.

Will these courses help me advance my career?

Based on hundreds of reviews from thousands of students we know how CFI courses have helped so many people advance their finance careers. Our courses are designed to be extremely practical and simulate the experience of being trained as a professional financial analyst…the ultimate way to advance your career. For real-world examples and to help delve even deeper into the course concepts, please look into our free career resources library.