Paul Pignataro 
Financial Modeling and Valuation 
A Practical Guide to Investment Banking and Private Equity

Written by the Founder and CEO of the prestigious New York
School of Finance, this book schools you in the fundamental tools
for accurately assessing the soundness of a stock investment. Built
around a full-length case study of Wal-Mart, it shows you how to
perform an in-depth analysis of that company’s financial standing,
walking you through all the steps of developing a sophisticated
financial model as done by professional Wall Street analysts. You
will construct a full scale financial model and valuation
step-by-step as you page through the book.

When we ran this analysis in January of 2012, we estimated the
stock was undervalued. Since the first run of the analysis, the
stock has increased 35 percent. Re-evaluating Wal-Mart
9months later, we will step through the techniques utilized by Wall
Street analysts to build models on and properly value business
entities.

* Step-by-step financial modeling – taught using downloadable
Wall Street models, you will construct the model step by step as
you page through the book.

* Hot keys and explicit Excel instructions aid even the novice
excel modeler.

* Model built complete with Income Statement, Cash Flow
Statement, Balance Sheet, Balance Sheet Balancing Techniques,
Depreciation Schedule (complete with accelerating depreciation and
deferring taxes), working capital schedule, debt schedule, handling
circular references, and automatic debt pay downs.

* Illustrative concepts including detailing model flows help aid
in conceptual understanding.

* Concepts are reiterated and honed, perfect for a novice yet
detailed enough for a professional.

* Model built direct from Wal-Mart public filings, searching
through notes, performing research, and illustrating techniques to
formulate projections.

* Includes in-depth coverage of valuation techniques commonly
used by Wall Street professionals.

* Illustrative comparable company analyses – built the right way,
direct from historical financials, calculating LTM (Last Twelve
Month) data, calendarization, and properly smoothing EBITDA and Net
Income.

* Precedent transactions analysis – detailing how to extract
proper metrics from relevant proxy statements

* Discounted cash flow analysis – simplifying and illustrating
how a DCF is utilized, how unlevered free cash flow is derived, and
the meaning of weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

* Step-by-step we will come up with a valuation on Wal-Mart

* Chapter end questions, practice models, additional case studies
and common interview questions (found in the companion website)
help solidify the techniques honed in the book; ideal for
universities or business students looking to break into the
investment banking field.

About the author

PAUL PIGNATARO is the founder and CEO of the New York
School of Finance (NYSF). He has over thirteen years of experience
in investment banking and private equity in business mergers,
acquisitions, restructurings, asset divestitures, asset
acquisitions, and debt and equity transactions covering the oil,
gas, power and utility, internet and technology, real estate,
defense, travel, banking, and service industries. At NYSF, Mr.
Pignataro continues to participate on the training team, actively
providing training at bulge bracket banks and M&A teams at
corporations, and billion dollar funds. Prior to his
entrepreneurial endeavors, Mr. Pignataro worked at TH Lee Putnam
Ventures, a $1 billion private equity firm affiliated with buyout
giant Thomas H. Lee Partners. Prior to TH Lee, Mr. Pignataro worked
in the Investment Banking department of Morgan Stanley.