Equity Research interview preparation

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100

Traced to a firm

72

Firms

45

Updated

September 2026

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All firmsMorningstar12Man Group6Balyasny Asset Management5BLBlackRock5FTFranklin Templeton5MSCI5Jefferies4CSCredit Suisse3Fidelity Investments3Moody's3Perella Weinberg Partners3Point723S&P Global3The Vanguard Group3WMWellington Management3Advent International2Apollo Global Management2Bank of America2Carlyle Group2DED.E. Shaw2Houlihan Lokey2HSBC2Piper Sandler2Sequoia Capital2SSState Street2Viking Global Investors2WBWilliam Blair2ACAQR Capital Management1BGBaupost Group1BMBNY Mellon1Centerview Partners1Coatue Management1Goldman Sachs1GSGuggenheim Securities1HWHarris Williams1Insight Partners1Invesco1Mizuho1Moelis & Company1MSMorgan Stanley1PIMCO1SCSchroders1Scotiabank1T. Rowe Price1TSTruist Securities1

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All topicsResearch process9Stock pitch6Company analysis8Investment philosophy5Valuation14Modelling2Portfolio and risk8Macro8Sector knowledge2Accounting8Career and fit12Industry knowledge6Quantitative research1Sector: technology3Sector: consumer1Sector: healthcare1Sector: energy1Sector: financials2Sector: industrials1Case and estimation2

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1. 040How would you analyse a pharmaceutical company?Sector: healthcareHardtechnicalMoelis & CompanyMergers and Acquisitions · Los Angeles · 2022GSGuggenheim SecuritiesHealthcare · London · 2026

   Say this

   Value it asset by asset. The marketed drugs are annuities running to patent expiry, the pipeline is a set of probability-weighted options, and the two are valued completely differently.

   Then walk it

   1. Marketed products: forecast each drug's sales to its loss of exclusivity date, then model the cliff. Generic entry typically removes 70 to 90 percent of small-molecule revenue within a year or two; biologics erode more slowly because biosimilars are harder.
   2. Pipeline: for each candidate, size the patient population, price, penetration and duration, then apply probability of success by phase. Roughly 60 to 70 percent from Phase III, around 30 percent from Phase II, low single digits preclinical.
   3. Sum the parts and add net cash. The output is a range, because a single readout can move the value by a factor.
   4. Then the structural questions: the patent cliff schedule over the next five years, R&D productivity measured as approvals per dollar spent, and whether the company can acquire its way out of a gap.
   5. Pricing and reimbursement risk is the sector's macro. Policy on drug pricing can reset the whole group's multiple independently of any company's execution.
   6. The practical framing for a note: what percentage of current revenue loses exclusivity within five years, and does the pipeline plus reasonable business development replace it? That one question drives most pharma investment cases.

   Where candidates lose it

   Applying a single P/E to the whole company. A pharma is a portfolio of expiring annuities plus options, and blending them into one multiple hides the cliff, which is the entire risk.

   Expect next

   • How do you handle the patent cliff?
   • What probability would you use for a Phase II asset?
   • Which is riskier, biologics or small molecules?

   Reported by candidates at Moelis & Company (Mergers and Acquisitions, Los Angeles, 2022); Guggenheim Securities (Healthcare, London, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.