How to Read a Valuation Report (Read This Before Using the Site)

The first time you see one of our valuation reports, a wall of jargon may put you off. Don't worry — this piece walks you through it item by item, the way you would read a medical check-up report. In truth it answers just three plain questions: Is it expensive? Is it worth it? Is it reliable?

1. Is It Expensive: Valuation State and the Action Label

The report gives a judgment on the current price — broadly "undervalued / fairly valued / overvalued" — paired with an action label (such as watch, monitor, or avoid). This is not a forecast of "whether it will rise or fall tomorrow," but a judgment of "whether the odds are good if you buy at today's price."

2. Is It Worth It: IRR and Return Spread

In a sentence: you should buy not merely because "it can make money," but only when "it makes enough to justify the risk you are taking."

• IRR (internal rate of return): the annualized return this investment is expected to deliver under a given set of assumptions.
• Required Return: the minimum return you should demand once risk is taken into account — your hurdle rate.
• Return Spread: expected return minus required return. A positive and larger spread means better odds; a negative one means the return does not justify the risk.

3. Is It Reliable: Formal vs. Provisional

This is the discipline we value most. When the key data is complete and verifiable, a conclusion is marked Formal; when data is missing or in doubt, the engine does not pretend to see clearly — it explicitly marks the conclusion Provisional and lowers its confidence. Seeing Provisional means "this conclusion is still missing inputs, so treat it with caution." That honesty is precisely what separates it from an off-the-cuff price target.

“Better to flag a number as provisional than to fabricate one that merely looks certain.”— Institutional research principle

What Are the Snapshot and the Institutional Locked Card

• Snapshot: the most concise view — understand in 30 seconds whether a stock is expensive right now, with the conclusion, key figures, and a one-line takeaway (free).
• Institutional Locked Card: a complete institutional-grade audit trail and memo, including the key points of debate and the sensitive variables that most affect the outcome — traceable sources, locked assumptions, refreshable and reviewable, suited to deep research (subscription).

Next Steps

Once you understand the report, you can save it as a Locked Card and later use Data Refresh to update the underlying data, or Revision to generate a new version when your long-term assumptions change. For the exact steps, see the tutorial. For any term you don't understand, refer back to "Essential Basic Terms."