what is valuation analysis 
valuation analysis is a process to estimate the approximate value or worth of an asset whether its a business equity fixed income security commodity real estate or other assets the analyst may use different approaches to valuation analysis for different types of assets but the common thread will be looking at the underlying fundamentals of the asset understanding valuation analysisvaluation analysis is mostly science number crunching but there is also a bit of art involved because the analyst is forced to make assumptions for model inputs the value of an asset is basically the present value pv of all future cash flows that the asset is forecasted to produce inherent in the estimation model for a company for example is a myriad of assumptions regarding sales growth margins financing choices capital expenditures tax rates discount rate for the pv formula etc once the model is set up the analyst can play with the variables to see how valuation changes with these different assumptions there is no one size fits all model for assorted asset classes whereas a valuation for a manufacturing company may be amenable to a multi year dcf model and a real estate company would be best modeled with current net operating income noi and capitalization rate cap rate commodities such as iron ore copper or silver would be subject to a model centered around global supply and demand forecasts 