Equity Research
Discover what equity research is, how analysts study listed companies, what the job involves and how students can prepare for internships and analyst roles.
Introduction
What is equity research?
Equity research means studying publicly listed companies and the sectors they operate in, in depth. Analysts build financial models, forecast future earnings, and publish a recommendation, buy, hold or sell, together with a price target that reflects what they think the shares are worth. This work happens on two sides of the market. Sell-side research sits at banks and brokers and publishes its views to external clients, mainly investors who trade through that bank. Buy-side research sits inside asset managers, pension funds and hedge funds, and informs the firm own investment decisions rather than being published externally.
Coverage typically starts with an initiation report, a lengthy document that lays out the full investment thesis and becomes the reference point investors return to, and then continues through much shorter maintenance updates that react to quarterly results or breaking news. Because the same bank can also advise the companies an analyst covers on deals, regulators require an information barrier, often called a Chinese wall, between research and investment banking, and research is barred from commenting on a company during defined quiet periods around a listing or transaction.
What they do
What equity research analysts do
The job splits roughly into two halves that constantly feed each other. One half is quantitative: keeping a detailed model current, checking that a forecast still ties out after a supplier update or a currency move. The other half is judgement: deciding whether a change in the numbers actually changes the investment case, or is just noise that the market will ignore within a day. Analysts who are strong on the first half but weak on the second tend to produce accurate but unremarkable models, while the reverse produces confident opinions that are not well grounded.
Step by step
How the research process works
The core loop
From model to published view
At its core, equity research follows a simple loop that repeats for every company an analyst covers. First, the analyst builds and continuously refines a financial model of the company, capturing how its revenue, costs and cash flow are likely to develop. Second, that model feeds into a valuation and a clear view: is the company undervalued, fairly valued, or overvalued at its current share price. Third, that view is published as a recommendation and price target, and shared with the people who use it, clients on the sell-side, or portfolio managers on the buy-side.
How that final step happens differs by side. On the sell-side, a new call is often flagged first in an internal morning meeting so the sales desk can relay it to clients before the market opens, and the report itself is distributed through platforms such as Bloomberg alongside direct calls to key accounts. On the buy-side, the same view might never leave the building. It is argued directly to the portfolio manager, who decides whether it changes a position, and the analyst is judged on how that call performs, not on how it was written.
Types
Types of equity research
Roles
Roles in equity research
Intern
A student supporting an analyst with data, models and background research.
Junior / Associate Analyst
Supports a senior analyst by building and maintaining parts of the model and drafting notes.
Analyst
Owns coverage of a set of companies and publishes recommendations under their own name.
Senior Analyst
Covers the most important names in a sector and is a recognised voice with clients or portfolio managers.
Head of Research / Sector Lead
Oversees a research team or sector franchise and sets the quality bar for the whole team's output.
Career timeline
How long each step takes
Equity research does not have one fixed ladder, and timing depends heavily on the firm, the country and the sector you cover. As a rough guide, the path from junior to senior researcher tends to follow the pattern below, but there is no fixed number of years attached to any step, and people move between sell-side, buy-side and asset management at different points in their career.
| Level | Typically in the role |
|---|---|
| Junior / Associate Analyst | a couple of years |
| Analyst | several years, building own coverage |
| Senior Analyst | an extended period, deepening sector expertise |
| Head of Research / Sector Lead | most senior, reached after a long track record |
Business model
How equity research fits the business model
On the sell-side, research does not generate revenue directly. Instead, it supports the bank's trading business: clients pay commission to trade through the bank, and high-quality, widely read research helps attract and retain those clients. Research also underpins corporate access, arranging meetings between company management and institutional investors, which is itself a valued service for both sides.
On the buy-side, the logic is different. Research there does not need to attract clients through commission, it directly shapes which stocks the fund buys, holds or sells. Its value is measured in investment performance, not fees, so buy-side analysts are judged on how their calls actually played out for the portfolio, not on how widely their notes were read.
That difference also shapes how each side is evaluated internally. Sell-side franchises are often assessed on the trading volume and corporate access opportunities their research indirectly generates, while a buy-side research desk is judged as a cost centre that must earn its keep by improving the fund's investment decisions over time, since there is no external client paying for the notes themselves.
Compensation
Compensation in equity research
Compensation in equity research generally consists of a base salary plus a bonus. On the sell-side, that bonus is often tied to the quality and accuracy of an analyst's calls, and to how the analyst is ranked or voted on by clients, since those votes influence how much commission the bank captures. On the buy-side, bonuses are more often linked to how the fund itself performed, and to how much an analyst's specific recommendations contributed to that result.
In practice, sell-side votes are gathered through periodic investor polls in which institutional clients rank the analysts they find most valuable by sector, and banks use these rankings, alongside trading volumes generated, to decide how commission revenue is allocated across teams. On the buy-side, some firms formally track the hypothetical return of each analyst's calls against a benchmark, an internal practice sometimes called attribution, so that compensation reflects the quality of the analysis rather than only overall fund performance.
Compensation tends to rise as an analyst builds a track record and takes ownership of more important coverage. We do not publish specific salary figures here, since they vary strongly by firm, seniority and location, but as a general path, reward grows as your calls prove reliable and your sector reputation builds.
Juniors
What interns and juniors do
Junior team members build the foundation that a senior analyst's published view rests on.
- Building parts of financial models
- Maintaining and updating existing models
- Updating company and market data
- Drafting sections of research reports
- Sitting in on company earnings calls
- Preparing summaries of industry news
- Checking data and figures for accuracy
- Supporting valuation work
Skills
Skills you need
Routes
Best routes into equity research
Compare
Equity research versus other finance paths
Equity research vs investment banking
Research forms an independent view on companies that are already listed, and does not execute transactions. Banking advises companies on deals, such as mergers or capital raises, and is paid when those deals close. Because of this, research analysts and bankers covering the same company are kept behind an information barrier, and a research desk's revenue comes from trading and subscriptions rather than the deal fees that fund a banking team.
Equity research vs asset management
Research informs an investment decision but does not make it. Portfolio management, part of asset management, makes and owns the final decision on what the fund actually buys or sells. In practice, many portfolio managers started their careers as research analysts, since the skill of building a defensible view on a company transfers directly, even though the two roles are ultimately measured differently: an analyst is judged on the quality of the call, a portfolio manager on the return of the whole portfolio it sits within.
Equity research vs trading
Research builds a fundamental, long-term view of a company's value. Trading focuses on executing transactions and managing risk over much shorter time horizons, and does not need to hold a fundamental view.
Equity research vs corporate finance
Corporate finance sits inside a company and manages its own financing and strategy. Equity research sits outside the company, on the investor side, forming a view from public information.
Employers
Equity research employers in the Netherlands
A selection of known asset managers active in equity research in the Netherlands. We only list firms we have verified and expand this list over time.
Buy-side asset managers
Equity research roles also exist on the sell-side at many of the international banks in our directory. Browse all finance companies.
Vacancies
Equity research vacancies
We only show real, current openings with a link to the employer. Internships, working-student roles and analyst positions appear here as they become available.
View all vacanciesPreparation
How to prepare as a student
Resources
Recommended resources
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is equity research?
Equity research is the analysis of publicly listed companies and sectors. Analysts build financial models, forecast earnings and publish recommendations, such as buy, hold or sell, together with a price target.
What is the difference between sell-side and buy-side research?
Sell-side research sits at banks and brokers and publishes recommendations to external clients, supporting trading activity. Buy-side research sits inside asset managers and hedge funds and informs the firm's own investment decisions, without being published externally.
Do you need a finance degree?
A finance, economics or business degree is common but not the only route. What matters most is strong financial modelling skills, an interest in specific sectors, and the ability to form and defend a clear investment view.
How is it different from investment banking?
Research forms an independent view on companies that are already listed. Banking advises companies on transactions, such as mergers or capital raises, and does not publish ongoing recommendations.
What does a typical day look like?
Generally a mix of updating financial models, reading company and industry news, speaking with contacts, and writing notes. Around quarterly results the pace picks up sharply as analysts update forecasts and recommendations.
Is the CFA useful?
Yes, the CFA charter is widely valued in equity research because it covers financial statement analysis, valuation and portfolio concepts directly relevant to the job, and many analysts pursue it alongside their career.
What is the work-life balance like?
It varies by role and firm, but is generally considered more predictable than investment banking, with clear busy periods around company results and quieter stretches in between.
Can you move into asset management or other paths?
Yes, moving from equity research into asset management as a portfolio manager is a common and natural progression, since research builds the sector knowledge and modelling skills that investment decisions rely on.
Related
Related finance paths
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