Series: Wiley Finance (Book 108)
Hardcover: 992 pages
Publisher: Wiley; 2nd edition (January 18, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0471414883
ISBN-13: 978-0471414889
Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 2.3 x 9.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #631,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #79 in Books > Business & Money > Finance > Corporate Finance > Valuation #512 in Books > Textbooks > Business & Finance > Investments & Securities #882 in Books > Textbooks > Business & Finance > Finance
For investors subscribed to discounted cash flows valuation (DCF), there is no other books that offer the kind of in-depth anlaysis (both in step-by-step description and available scenarios using real companies) like this book does. Plus, Professor Damodaran maintains a free website where Excel-based valuation models and industry data are periodically updated. These features make the book invaluable. In short, if I am allowed to buy only one investment book, this is the one.But since I can buy as many books as I want, it would be more important to tell what this book does not do. First, it's always important to get a second opinion. In this case, it would be something other than DCF. Currently, DCF and relative valuation (such as PE and PV) are the dominent valuation methods used in the U.S. And yes, they are both covered in-depth by this book, in addition to the Economic Value Addded method which is gaining momentum in recent years. But this book essentially dismisses the income statements in favor of cash flows statements for valuing securities, preferring DCF to relative valuation. This is certainly understandable in lights of recent manipulation of GAAP income by offenders like Enron, WorldCom and Tyco. But I believe it's important for investors to hear the voice for income statements valuation method. For that investors should get James English's Applied Equity Analysis - another must-have - as a second valuation reference book. Secondly, this book uses CAPM model for finding the discount rate. Again, it is true that CAPM is the most widely used model in the U.S.
This was a worthwhile purchase, but there are definitely some limitations with this book.Positives - Damodaran has his very excellent web-site to complement this book. He does a very thorough job of breaking down the fundamental determinants of investments from both a DCF and relative valuation viewpoint. After reading this very long and detailed book, the reader should have a solid grasp of the theoretical underpinnings of valuation.In terms of actual content, I think he does his best work in the chapters on relative valuation, fundamental growth projections, betas, risk, and the whole process of deriving cost of equity, cost of debt, and the WACC.Negatives - There are quite a few, but it doesn't diminish from my overall recommendation to purchase this book. Among the most glaring issues:- Calculation errors. This is my biggest gripe with the book. It is so mathematical and technically-oriented, and it is absolutely vital that the numbers are calculated properly. I can't tell you how many times Damodaran miscalculates his own examples. And even the answers to the problem sets that he posts on his web-site have some flagrant errors. This is simply UNACCEPTABLE because of the nature of this book.- Expository style is meandering at times. I feel that a lot of the chapters could be shortened, and sometimes, it seems like the professor goes on a tangent for the sake of being overly thorough. Very rarely, there are a some key sentences that require re-reading; and after doing so, you think he could have written it a lot more simply. But maybe the topic itself is pretty complex, making his job more difficult.
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