Financial statement analysis is concerned with extracting relevant information from a firm's financial statements to answer questions about that firm. This is a technical course which integrates finance and accounting concepts together with the appropriate tools of analysis. It will help students understand how businesses work, how value is generated, and how this value is (or is not) captured in the financial statements. Emphasis will also be given to interpreting information in financial statements in order to make sound credit, investing, and equity analysis decisions. Topics covered in the course will include a review of the related conceptual framework and the contents of financial statements as well as their footnotes, tools and procedures common to financial statement analysis, accounting and finance based valuation analysis tools, and preparation and interpretation of state-of-the-art credit and equity research reports.