FBE 529 - Financial Analysis and Valuation

Best professor. Makes material easier to understand. Valuations is a good skill to have in general, but the class may be entirely different an potentially more difficult if not for Scott.

The class is useful to keep your memory about corporate finance stuff

Feel like everything i learned in this class is covered by corp finance

Case heavy, discussion-based, and Professor gives lectures free-style. Professor Ku is not for everyone, she's the complete opposite of Scott Abrams. Fun class if you like discussions, cases, and plan to join SIF

Very interesting guest speakers and more of an overview class

Really slow pace. 10 weeks in we're still reviewing stuff from core finance

The professor comes from the industry and has extensive knowledge in it. However he speaks extremely slow with flat tone and the assignment and exam planning should be more careful with clearer guidance and organization. It is designed for PM students

Lecture was lacking for this class, some good guest speakers were here, but the professor wasn't really interested in teaching, provided minimum lecture and often wandered off the topic. She was very knowledgeable but you have to

Challenging class with a lot of content, which is all extremely helpful if your future job function involves anything to do with valuations or analyzing financial statements. Scott Abrams speaks fast so it is important to pay attention in class. The workload is manageable, but does require some effort.

Dean Ku has such great intentions in teaching this course but as someone who is not skilled in finance, I've really struggled to understand her teaching style and lectures. She often assumes students know much more about finance than they really do and believes students can intuit answers rather than learn them. Because of this, her descriptions of concepts are often vague and unclear and I've resorted to finding outside support in this class to make up for the gap. Valuations is an important topic to learn but know that you'll likely be teaching yourself a lot of this course if you decide to take it and do not have a finance background.

Ku clearly loves her subject and loves talking about it, which is good. Her lectures contain frequent digressions and long periods with no actual hard content covered, which is not good. Not nearly enough time is spent instructing and offering practice in actual calculations; too much theory and concepts, not enough practical application. And assignment directions are often vague and/or unclear.

As the other comments seem to suggest, the experiences with Professor Abrams and Professor Ku are different, and I prefer the latter. Ku is probably trying to match her desire for the class to see beyond the newsprint and formulae with a need to bring everyone along with the rigour of the class. The concepts covered are not very many, and except for LBO, everything is covered in the core Corp Fin class. Valuations is considered a must-have MBA elective, because I think it is supposed to teach you how to value anything in terms of money (or more specifically in time value of money). Ku does an excellent job with this concept. For example "dividend is the liquidation of equity", "DCF is the most convincing because YOU have done the math, most likely with just an Excel sheet." The assignments can become needlessly complex, so check with her about expectations. Mid terms are hard, but not hard for hard's sake. Guest lectures are great, and Prof Ku is very motivational as a person.

As others have mentioned, Scott does move quickly, which can be challenging for those without finance backgrounds. However, all the material is in the lectures, so if you go back and rewatch them, you'll probably pick up everything you need to know.

The class offers little emphasis on "Valuation". Yes, you will learn to do DCF and Comps, however, in my opinion offers little insights into nuances of valuation and actually going about securities analysis to have any practical relevance.

Extension of corporate finance class. Scott is incredibly engaging, structures the class in an organized way, and brings in real world experience as well as case and hands-on practice to supplement the theory and make the content come alive. Highly recommend even if you are not going into finance. If you attend class, pay attention, do the homework (mostly group work) and additional practice problems, and don't just try to do the bare minimum, you will do just fine in this class, even if you are not going into banking.

Scott is a fantastic professor who cares deeply about helping his students understand the concepts of valuation. While Scott is certainly a fast mover and quick talker, this makes his classes rarely boring and ever dynamic. His use of references to his career help to illuminate the course and provide a unique persepective.

Scott is an amazing professor He moves through the content quickly but you will mot be left behind if you do the work and go to office hours. I chose this class because I enjoyed Scott's teaching style in the core finance course and I was looking to broaden my knowledge despite finance not being my future intended field. I do think this class is a great way to dive deeper into how finance fits into buisnesses overall in a practical and enjoyable way. Cases are interesting.

This class is a great Tier 2 finance course. Scott, although moves very quickly, is understanding and helps students conceptualize many of the nuances in a Balance Sheet/Income Statement/Statement of Cash Flows. Additionally, he ties fundamental analysis to overall valuation of a company in a simple manner that is easy to follow. To dinge him slightly, sometimes the numbers utilized for his examples are not correct, which requires correction. However, without a finance background, these errors can lead to significant confusion. Overall, however, Scott is a rockstar.

I do not come from a finance or business background so one of my goals coming to grad school was to immerse myself in courses outside my comfort zome that would push me to grow. This class fit that bill. Valuations feels like an extension of the core finance course. Scott is one of my favorite professors so far at Marshall and I really appreciate how we will work with each student to meet them at their finance level. I think this class is great for anyone looking to pursue finance or anyone just wanted to learn more about finance and how it fits into the larger business puzzle.