About Us
The Divergent View’s mission is to democratize access to information by providing all investors access to high quality investor education and company research. All content has been written by professional investors with experience from Wall Street’s largest equity funds and banks.
The A to Z Guide to Stock Picking
Learn to Invest from the Pros
- Introduction to Financial Accounting
- Corporate Finance and Valuation
- The Art of Investing
- 1Introduction to Financial Accounting
- 2What is a Balance Sheet?
- 3What is an Income Statement?
- 4Gross Profit, EBITDA, Operating Profit, and Net Income
- 5What is a Cash Flow Statement?
- 6How do the Financial Statements Flow Together?
- 7Depreciation and Amortization: In More Detail
- 8Capital Expenditures: In More Detail
- 9Working Capital Accounts: In More Detail
- 10EBITDA: In More Detail
- 11Minority Interest and Equity Investments: In More Detail
- 12Calculating Cash Flow: In More Detail
- 13Notes to the Financial Statements
- 1Corporate Legal Structures and the Role of Management
- 2Public Companies and the IPO Process
- 3Understanding Capital Structure and Market Value
- 4Share Count and Calculating Market Capitalization
- 5Present Value, Future Value, and Discount Rates
- 6Perpetuities and Growing Perpetuities
- 7Cost of Equity, Cost of Debt, and Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)
- 8Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis of Verizon: Simple Example
- 9Relative Valuation: Price to Earnings, Price to Cash Flow, Enterprise Value to EBITDA
- 10Understanding the Historic P/E Multiple of the S&P 500
- 11Comparing Multiples: Are these Companies Comparable?
- 12What is Sum of the Parts Valuation?
- 13Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Allocation of Capital
- 14Calculating Accretion/Dilution of Acquisitions and Stock Buybacks
- 15Problem Set – Calculating Accretion/Dilution and Target Prices
- 16What is Investment Grade Debt vs. Junk Debt?
- 17What is Financial Leverage vs. Operating Leverage? A Review of Net Debt / EBITDA and Incremental Margins
- 1Our Approach to Investing
- 2Create an Investment Write-up for Every Position
- 3What are the characteristics of a good company vs. a good investment?
- 4Where should I look for investment ideas?
- 5Should I choose an investment universe? Generalist or sector specialist
- 6The Role of the Sell-side and Consensus Estimates
- 7Where can I find consensus earnings estimates?
- 8What process do I follow for researching a new company?
- 9Formulating an Investment Thesis – The Divergent View
- 10How do you pick a stock price target? Finalizing the valuation.
- 11What is a cheap valuation vs. an expensive valuation?
- 12Establishing an investment timeline and catalyst path for your investment
- 13Identify the risk factors for your investment
- 14Investment write-up: Finalizing the Charter (CHTR) write-up
- 15When do you purchase a stock and when do you sell it?
- 16Portfolio construction: building and managing a portfolio of stocks
- 17Quarterly Earnings: Holding investments into their quarterly earnings reports
- 18Advice for new investors: 15 tips learnt the hard way
Company Profiles
Amazon (AMZN) – Investor Notes
January 31, 2019: Amazon (AMZN) reports fourth quarter 2018 results. Read on for notes from this earnings call and past investor events.
Square (SQ) – Investor Notes
November 7, 2018: Square (SQ) reports third quarter earnings results.
American Tower (AMT) – Investor Notes
February 27, 2019: American Tower (AMT) reported strong 4Q 2018 results and provided its initial outlook for 2019. Read on for notes from the 4Q earnings call and past investor events.
Yelp (YELP) – Investor Notes
November 8, 2018: Yelp (YELP) reports third quarter 2018 earnings results.
Verizon (VZ) – Investor Notes
January 8, 2019: Verizon (VZ) presents at the annual Citi conference.
Spotify Technology (SPOT) – Investor Notes
November 1, 2018: Spotify (SPOT) reports third quarter 2018 earnings results. Read on for notes from this earnings call and prior SPOT investor events.
SBA Communications (SBAC) – Investor Notes
November 5, 2018: SBA Communications (SBAC) reports third quarter 2018 earnings results.
PayPal (PYPL) – Investor Notes
December 4, 2018: PayPal (PYPL) presents at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference. Read on for notes from this conference and prior PYPL investor events.
Marriott (MAR) – Investor Notes
December 5, 2018: Marriott (MAR) presents at the Barclays Gaming and Leisure conference. Read on for notes from this conference and prior MAR investor events.
Mastercard (MA) – Investor Notes
November 13, 2018: Mastercard (MA) presents at the Citi Financial Technology conference. Read on for notes from this presentation and prior MA investor events.
Live Nation (LYV) – Company Profile
October 2018: Learn more about Live Nation's business model in this detailed company profile
Live Nation (LYV) – Investor Notes
September 13, 2018: LiveNation (LYV) presents at the annual Goldman Sachs Communicopia conference.
InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) – Investor Notes
August 7, 2018: InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) reports first half 2018 results.
Hilton (HLT) – Investor Notes
July 24, 2019: Hilton (HLT) reports second quarter 2019 earnings results.
Grubhub (GRUB) – Investor Notes
October 25, 2018: Grubhub (GRUB) reports third quarter 2018 earnings results.
Investment Strategy
Who’s Reading
THE DIVERGENT VIEW
QUOTE OF THE DAY
I regularly use the Divergent View investor notes as I research new companies.
-Terrence Portfolio Manager
Who’s Reading
THE DIVERGENT VIEW
QUOTE OF THE DAY
In a sea of noise, The Divergent View stands out above the rest.”
-ALEX
Hedge Fund, Analyst