In 2011, Stephen Penman published Accounting for Value, the most important analytical contribution to the Granhamite tradition since The Intelligent Investor, and a life-changing book for fundamental investors like myself who have made Penman’s framework the cornerstone of our investment approach. Fourteen years later, alongside his co-author Peter Pope, Penman returns with an expanded and refined version of his principles, enriched with compelling real-world examples – an offering that could not be more timely amidst the feverish exuberance of today’s stock markets. This is more than a book; it is destined to become the Holy Grail for generations of intelligent investors to come.

While in danger of oversimplifying both books, Penman and Pope’s latest reads like a very modern very up to date rigorous version of Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor.” It is targeted at active value investors, yet nonetheless this quant factor investor found it incredibly useful (I will immediately try to suck the life out of these lessons by making a thousand tiny diversified bets based on them!). Highly recommended.

Fundamental, active value investing has come under significant pressure in recent years. Against this backdrop, the work of Penman and Pope is very timely and refreshing. They strongly lay out the case for fundamental analysis as the basis for the rational valuation of a business. With many investors seemingly giving up on a value-based approach this work is hugely important in reminding investors about what value investing means and how to go about it. In an environment that has seen large changes in investors’ assumptions about foundational investment concepts, they offer a path to value investing that is not anchored on notions such as the cost of capital and instead use a critical accounting lens. Seen in this way, value investing is not stuck with simple valuation metrics or a debate about value vs growth and instead is focused on not overpaying for growth. This is one of the central investment questions today. Their rigorous approach is set out with numerous examples applied to individual companies that makes it very tangible to the user. There is also a larger narrative here that reminds us that fundamental value investing has an essential role as a mechanism for the allocation of capital.

Value investing has been around for almost a century – but how can investors modernise this popular investment style to generate active returns? Peter Pope and Stephen Penman’s book is a must read for anyone who is passionate about investing, and reveals how value investors can retain an edge over other investors in the times of emerging megatrends such as AI and ESG.

Both Stephen Penman and Peter Pope are experts in the field of accounting, and with this book they offer a novel approach to integrate analysis of fundamentals into a systematic approach to value investing. They provide insights about why and when style investing works, especially classic style factors like value, growth, quality, profitability and investment.

Financial Statement Analysis for Value Investing reads like a great suspense novel, with each chapter slowly revealing the answers to many questions you may have had about value investing but were too afraid to ask: Is free cash flow the right measure of value? And what about great companies like Amazon or Walmart that had no free cash flows for years? How can I invest confidently in those? Is forecasting years into the future to determine intrinsic value not highly speculative? And what discount rate do I use? With this book, the authors have provided a valuable practitioners guide that can serve as a solid foundation for value investors.

This is a beautifully written book that shows how fundamental investment analysis should be done that fully exploits the information available in corporate financial statements and uses that as a platform to search out other information relevant to assessing a company's future prospects. It is packed with explorations of real-life examples and shows how the investor can determine whether the stock market price is too high for the risks involved. A gem for graduate students and practitioners alike.

Penman and Pope combine academic chops with Wall Street savvy in this exciting new resource for value investors. Written in the style of an active investor, this book teaches financial statement analysis principles within a value investing framework. The structured “accounting books” approach combines quantitative rigor with practical applicability. Large sample findings and real-world cases further illustrate key concepts in action. A foundational reference suitable for both investment professionals and students new to value investing.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading FSAfVI. Written in a witty and entertaining style, it challenges time-honoured tenets of fundamental investing such as the need for a discounted cash flow model, the role of valuation models in general and the very existence of a security's intrinsic value. Grasping the detail - Stephen Penman and Peter Pope urge us - is key to becoming and intelligent (and hopefully a successful) investor. The authors dispense with unnecessary formalism to focus instead on thoroughly researched practical examples that show the importance of their ideas in action. This book should be on the desk of every practitioner involved in value investing.