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Fundamental Analysis for Beginners: Grow Your Investment Portfolio Like A Pro Using Financial Statements and Ratios of Any Business with Zero Investing Experience Required
Stocks go up! Stocks go down! The stock market looks as if it's just a big show. But how would you like to be able to know what a stock's really worth - and make money by buying it at a discount?
Learn how to analyze a company's financial reports and business, and you can make great returns by buying stocks below their true value. That's the way Warren Buffett made his $96.3 billion. It's the way Peter Lynch took the Fidelity Magellan fund from zero to hero - making a 29 percent annual return and increasing the value of each $1,000 invested in the fund on day one to $28,000 when he retired.
It's so easy to get started investing nowadays, with commission free brokers accepting low minimum investment, like Robinhood or SoFi Invest. Individuals have already found the way to success using fundamental analysis to pick the right stocks.
Tiffany James started with a single investment in Tesla back in 2019. She built her initial investment into a $2m portfolio and now runs online community Modern Blk Girl.Ishfaq Peerally is an investor from Mauritius who is one of the top value investors on eToro. He's turned $10,000 in September 2016 into $83,000 by April 2022!
They've vastly increased their wealth by investing in stocks. And you could join them!
But a lot of beginning investors lose money time after time, because there are 6 basic skills they haven't don't know how to read a company's financial statements;they don't know how to assess a company's value;they don't know how to calculate basic ratios to assess the health of the business;they don't know how to set a target buy price for a stock;they don't know how to check whether the CEO is telling the whole truth;they don't have the discipline and patience to do the research, or to wait for the stock to perform.
This book will make sure that you acquire the skills you need. Here is just a fraction of the detailed advice you can expect in this book;How to spot the kind of stocks that made Warren Buffett nearly $100 billion – Page 138The 10 misconceptions most beginners have about fundamental analysis – Page 18What do professional analyst mean by looking “underneath the skin” – Page 89If I told you a business had a P/E ratio of 28, would it be overvalued or undervalued? Learn more on page 156The untold truth on why reading “back to front” is so important– Page 33What caused these 6 reliable companies to go bust – Page 137Why this is the only time you should ask your friends for advice – Page 56When does Americas top investor Peter Lynch thinks a good growth company should be sold? Read more on page 123How you could easily spot red flags of a company’s management – Page 152The best places you should check to view other analyst expectations – Page 38If I promise to pay you $161 in five years' time, what is that promise worth right now? Find out on page 171
…and much, much more.
Plus on Page 7, you’ll also get our free bonus video masterclass; Company Valuation Simplified Masterclass.
This is not a dense 600 page theoretical textbook. It’s written in plain English and free from repetitive technical jargon.
Learn how to analyze a company's financial reports and business, and you can make great returns by buying stocks below their true value. That's the way Warren Buffett made his $96.3 billion. It's the way Peter Lynch took the Fidelity Magellan fund from zero to hero - making a 29 percent annual return and increasing the value of each $1,000 invested in the fund on day one to $28,000 when he retired.
It's so easy to get started investing nowadays, with commission free brokers accepting low minimum investment, like Robinhood or SoFi Invest. Individuals have already found the way to success using fundamental analysis to pick the right stocks.
Tiffany James started with a single investment in Tesla back in 2019. She built her initial investment into a $2m portfolio and now runs online community Modern Blk Girl.Ishfaq Peerally is an investor from Mauritius who is one of the top value investors on eToro. He's turned $10,000 in September 2016 into $83,000 by April 2022!
They've vastly increased their wealth by investing in stocks. And you could join them!
But a lot of beginning investors lose money time after time, because there are 6 basic skills they haven't don't know how to read a company's financial statements;they don't know how to assess a company's value;they don't know how to calculate basic ratios to assess the health of the business;they don't know how to set a target buy price for a stock;they don't know how to check whether the CEO is telling the whole truth;they don't have the discipline and patience to do the research, or to wait for the stock to perform.
This book will make sure that you acquire the skills you need. Here is just a fraction of the detailed advice you can expect in this book;How to spot the kind of stocks that made Warren Buffett nearly $100 billion – Page 138The 10 misconceptions most beginners have about fundamental analysis – Page 18What do professional analyst mean by looking “underneath the skin” – Page 89If I told you a business had a P/E ratio of 28, would it be overvalued or undervalued? Learn more on page 156The untold truth on why reading “back to front” is so important– Page 33What caused these 6 reliable companies to go bust – Page 137Why this is the only time you should ask your friends for advice – Page 56When does Americas top investor Peter Lynch thinks a good growth company should be sold? Read more on page 123How you could easily spot red flags of a company’s management – Page 152The best places you should check to view other analyst expectations – Page 38If I promise to pay you $161 in five years' time, what is that promise worth right now? Find out on page 171
…and much, much more.
Plus on Page 7, you’ll also get our free bonus video masterclass; Company Valuation Simplified Masterclass.
This is not a dense 600 page theoretical textbook. It’s written in plain English and free from repetitive technical jargon.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 17, 2022
111 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 31, 2022
If you’re a beginner investor, I highly recommend picking up this book. Any type of investing can be daunting, but AZ Penn helps cut through what’s usually very difficult concepts with informative background and explanations.
What I like the most is that it’s easy to follow. I find a lot of investing books jump around a bit. That’s understandable since there’s so much ground to cover, but AZ Penn clearly outlined this book before he set out to write it. It’s extremely comprehensive and detailed, without it feeling like it’s overbearing. I also like the quizzes, which help to ensure understanding and retention. Fundamental analysis is just that—understanding how to analyze investments on a fundamental technical basis. Highly recommended.
What I like the most is that it’s easy to follow. I find a lot of investing books jump around a bit. That’s understandable since there’s so much ground to cover, but AZ Penn clearly outlined this book before he set out to write it. It’s extremely comprehensive and detailed, without it feeling like it’s overbearing. I also like the quizzes, which help to ensure understanding and retention. Fundamental analysis is just that—understanding how to analyze investments on a fundamental technical basis. Highly recommended.
November 5, 2022
Another excellent book by a great author. Very few people can write these types of books in a way that beginners can truly understand. This is written with such detail and clarity, yet also in a way that is not too technical for someone who is starting out on this topic. I highly recommend this book to everyone! Five stars!
November 6, 2022
Jessica Russell recommended this and she was right. It's excellent! I wish more people could write in a way that beginners actually CAN understand instead of writing over their heads, so to speak. I highly recommend this!
August 27, 2022
If you have a small chunk of money (say enough to take an overseas vacation) and wonder what you could earn on it in the stock market, but you don’t know much if anything about investing—and if you have a little free time in your life—this book is perfect for you. You should know that analyzing stock data is so much easier now than it used to be. The data you need is posted publicly on financial websites, on the company’s “investor relations” site, and on the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) site. Much of the math you’d want to analyze is even calculated for you on various sites. When you decide to buy a stock, you don’t even have to make a phone call, “just click the button on your broker’s trading app.” It is also easy to get additional information from companies if you want it—such as ratios of key performance indicators—because it’s now required by the SEC.
Fundamental analysis teaches you how to analyze stock reports to decide whether or not to invest. It tells you what to buy, not when. You need A.Z. Penn’s earlier book on Technical Analysis for that, although he goes over the basic principles again here briefly. Penn’s charts and graphs are clear and easy to understand, and his prose is down-to-earth, interpreting the necessary financial jargon and abbreviations with an extensive glossary and everyday analogies. For instance: “Imagine going to a bar where the landlord lent everyone money to pay for their drinks . . . . It wouldn’t keep going long!” Penn is a stock-market popularizer the way that Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astronomy popularizer. He also provides free links to his online “Masterclass” if you buy his book or e-book. What he does not do is recommend particular stocks or encourage investing if you haven’t done the proper research or don’t really have the disposable income. Which is good.
Chapters 4, 5, and 9 get down to the real nitty-gritty of actually doing analysis on stocks before investing in them, and these chapters can be heavy going unless you’re already somewhat familiar with the stock market and its terminology and are not estranged from math. Like me, you may want to enter into your search bar “how to calculate ratios” to remember that bit. But chapter 9 does direct the reader to programs that can do any calculations Penn recommends before investing and to tutorials to learn how to do them yourself if you prefer. (Full disclosure: this reviewer is a risk-avoidant septuagenarian who has never invested on a personal level and who let her employer’s retirements expert do these calculations within the limits of “ethical stocks”—i.e., no weapons manufacturers, no companies supporting the government of the South African apartheid regime or companies suspected of using child labor, etc.)
Even if you don’t plan to get into investing, however, learning how to read company financial statements is useful on its own. For years, my retirement company (TIAA-CREF) sent me, as required by law, hefty annual reports on my retirement portfolio that I had no idea how to make sense of. Now I do. You start with the footnotes—that’s where the real red flags are—there and in the financial charts that Penn’s book teaches you how to analyze. The sections of the company financial statement that a layperson can understand in plain English are the least important and probably most misleading part of the report. They will always put a positive spin on the company. Chapter 14 of Fundamental Analysis tells you how you can build your own portfolio of twenty stocks you have analyzed and determined to be reliable and positioned to provide dependable dividends.
In chapter 13, along with crystallizing vital tips on becoming a successful fundamental investor (including warnings on what not to do), Penn gives examples of types of charts you can make that have uses beyond financial analysis or business planning. Some make good general decision charts, well beyond the usual pro and con lists, that can be used, for instance, in deciding if or where to relocate. Or any other difficult decision that is currently pending.
Fundamental analysis teaches you how to analyze stock reports to decide whether or not to invest. It tells you what to buy, not when. You need A.Z. Penn’s earlier book on Technical Analysis for that, although he goes over the basic principles again here briefly. Penn’s charts and graphs are clear and easy to understand, and his prose is down-to-earth, interpreting the necessary financial jargon and abbreviations with an extensive glossary and everyday analogies. For instance: “Imagine going to a bar where the landlord lent everyone money to pay for their drinks . . . . It wouldn’t keep going long!” Penn is a stock-market popularizer the way that Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astronomy popularizer. He also provides free links to his online “Masterclass” if you buy his book or e-book. What he does not do is recommend particular stocks or encourage investing if you haven’t done the proper research or don’t really have the disposable income. Which is good.
Chapters 4, 5, and 9 get down to the real nitty-gritty of actually doing analysis on stocks before investing in them, and these chapters can be heavy going unless you’re already somewhat familiar with the stock market and its terminology and are not estranged from math. Like me, you may want to enter into your search bar “how to calculate ratios” to remember that bit. But chapter 9 does direct the reader to programs that can do any calculations Penn recommends before investing and to tutorials to learn how to do them yourself if you prefer. (Full disclosure: this reviewer is a risk-avoidant septuagenarian who has never invested on a personal level and who let her employer’s retirements expert do these calculations within the limits of “ethical stocks”—i.e., no weapons manufacturers, no companies supporting the government of the South African apartheid regime or companies suspected of using child labor, etc.)
Even if you don’t plan to get into investing, however, learning how to read company financial statements is useful on its own. For years, my retirement company (TIAA-CREF) sent me, as required by law, hefty annual reports on my retirement portfolio that I had no idea how to make sense of. Now I do. You start with the footnotes—that’s where the real red flags are—there and in the financial charts that Penn’s book teaches you how to analyze. The sections of the company financial statement that a layperson can understand in plain English are the least important and probably most misleading part of the report. They will always put a positive spin on the company. Chapter 14 of Fundamental Analysis tells you how you can build your own portfolio of twenty stocks you have analyzed and determined to be reliable and positioned to provide dependable dividends.
In chapter 13, along with crystallizing vital tips on becoming a successful fundamental investor (including warnings on what not to do), Penn gives examples of types of charts you can make that have uses beyond financial analysis or business planning. Some make good general decision charts, well beyond the usual pro and con lists, that can be used, for instance, in deciding if or where to relocate. Or any other difficult decision that is currently pending.
April 29, 2025
Helped lay a foundation to understand how to select companies
I was recently told by a friend to purchase a stock, and shortly after I bought some shares (the next day), the price went up $10-$15.
I then looked up the science of buying stocks and learned more about the term ‘fundamental analysis’. This book provided me, someone who mainly went with my gut feeling when making a stock purchase, some fundamentals of how to more consistently pick a good company and build my portfolio. I would definitely recommend reading it as a primer. It wasn’t dense but definitely jam packed with great information.
I was recently told by a friend to purchase a stock, and shortly after I bought some shares (the next day), the price went up $10-$15.
I then looked up the science of buying stocks and learned more about the term ‘fundamental analysis’. This book provided me, someone who mainly went with my gut feeling when making a stock purchase, some fundamentals of how to more consistently pick a good company and build my portfolio. I would definitely recommend reading it as a primer. It wasn’t dense but definitely jam packed with great information.
August 20, 2022
Fundamental Analysis for Beginners: Grow Your Investment Portfolio is an EXCELLENT read. In is imperative in todays trading world to possess a strong grasp of both the Fundamentals along with ambitious Technical Analysis techniques. I especially like the Quiz sections in this book as the structured questions make the reader practice what they have learned. I rate this book a 5 STAR and recommend it for stock traders on their road to making more money and growing the value of their portfolio. Gold fortunes.
August 20, 2022
This was a well written and very informative book. It was about the value of a company. He goes on to look at several factors that determine the true companies value. Such as looking at 3 types of statements, cash flow, assets and liabilities. And other industry fundamentals. And in the end helps you to answer all important questions before buying stocks. For a beginner in understanding these fundamentals I found it very useful and important information. You need to understand these things before investing in any company.
August 20, 2022
For newbies or anyone wanting to refresh on their learnings, this is a great starting reference.
A.Z Penn has simplified the workings and processes for this field.
The book is both engaging and motivating.
This is also the second book from Penn that I have read and I highly recommend this one too.
If you didn't understand how this all worked before, you will. The writing is fluid and in layman's terms
Well done A.Z.
Always a pleasure to read your work
Kerry Kennedy Author of Dakota
A.Z Penn has simplified the workings and processes for this field.
The book is both engaging and motivating.
This is also the second book from Penn that I have read and I highly recommend this one too.
If you didn't understand how this all worked before, you will. The writing is fluid and in layman's terms
Well done A.Z.
Always a pleasure to read your work
Kerry Kennedy Author of Dakota
October 9, 2022
I read many ARC books during the year for voluntary reviews. I was unsure of reading this one, the cover reminded me of a college coursebook. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that A.Z. Dunn wrote this in an easy-going conversational tone. He told how to analyze stock data. I enjoyed his examples of Amazon and Starbucks (among others). There are short quizzes in the book after every chapter. I ended up enjoying it and learning new things I never thought I would find interesting!
December 15, 2023
I learnt so much from this book... I went in not even understanding what fundamental analysis actually is, and expecting to be very confused by a dry, heavy read full of technical language, but this was absolutely NOT the case. Instantly engaging, quick and straight to the point, A.Z Penn makes this crucial topic accessible for everyone. He even goes the extra mile and provides free bonus content and resources so everyone can put their newfound knowledge to good use!
June 6, 2025
Very throughly thought through and researched. It's great for beginners like me who want to start investing. Highly recommend this book. Usually this type of thing really puts me off investing because I don't know enough about it but this book is broken down into sections which really help novices to understand the vocabulary.
January 21, 2023
I am not a technical analysis fan. The author sells it quite a lot in the end. I do like the quick summaries of fundamentals in the beginning chapters. The dowloadable files are mostly about technical analysis
May 2, 2023
Comprehensive and expert tour through the fundamentals of the art and skill of understanding how to make intelligent investment decisions.
This is not the book for you if you want to buy GameStop or the latest meme stock. But if you’re prepared to do the work, it will help you see through the noise and really understand the fundamentals of investment.
This is not the book for you if you want to buy GameStop or the latest meme stock. But if you’re prepared to do the work, it will help you see through the noise and really understand the fundamentals of investment.
July 12, 2024
A lot of the concepts in this book made my head blow up. I think I'm definitely going to be more of a technical investor, although there is invaluable information in here about how to research a company before you invest.
November 7, 2022
Excellent book on investments! This was a great recommendation from a friend and I'm glad I read it. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews