how is financial analysis done 
financial analysis can be conducted in both corporate finance and investment finance settings a financial analyst will thoroughly examine a company s financial statements the income statement balance sheet and cash flow statement one of the most common ways to analyze financial data is to calculate ratios from the data in the financial statements to compare against those of other companies or against the company s own historical performance a key area of corporate financial analysis involves extrapolating a company s past performance such as net earnings or profit margin into an estimate of the company s future performance 