Equity Research interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

72

Firms

45

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

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

Topic

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

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitBrainteaserMarket view

1. 080How do you treat one-off items when building your earnings base?AccountingIntermediatetechnicalAsset management

   Say this

   Exclude genuinely non-recurring items, but be sceptical about what qualifies. The test is whether a similar item has appeared in previous years. Recurring one-offs are operating costs with a flattering label.

   Then walk it

   1. Genuinely one-off: a legal settlement, a disposal gain, a natural disaster loss, a one-time tax item. These should come out of the earnings base you value.
   2. Suspect: restructuring charges. If a company has taken restructuring charges in seven of the last eight years, restructuring is what the company does, and the charge belongs in earnings.
   3. Also suspect: impairments, which people exclude as non-cash. An impairment is an admission that capital previously deployed was wasted, so excluding it from history while keeping the acquired revenue flatters the return on capital.
   4. The method: build a five-year table of every adjustment the company made, and see which categories repeat. That table is often the most revealing exhibit in a research note.
   5. Be symmetric. Analysts reliably exclude one-off costs and quietly keep one-off gains. Applying the same standard in both directions is the discipline.
   6. And decide once, then apply consistently across the whole comparable set, or your multiples are not comparable.

   Where candidates lose it

   Accepting the company's adjusted number. The whole point of independent research is to make your own judgement about what is recurring, and the five-year adjustment table is the evidence for it.

   Expect next

   • How do you treat impairments?
   • What if the company adjusts for stock-based compensation?
   • How would that change the multiple you apply?
2. 084What is minority interest and why does it appear in enterprise value?ValuationIntermediatetechnicalBulge bracket IB

   Say this

   It is the portion of a consolidated subsidiary the parent does not own. You add it to enterprise value because the consolidated EBITDA includes 100 percent of that subsidiary, so the numerator must reflect 100 percent too.

   Then walk it

   1. Accounting: if a parent owns more than 50 percent it consolidates the whole subsidiary, taking all of its revenue and EBITDA, then deducts the minority's share of profit below the line.
   2. So consolidated EBITDA overstates what belongs to the parent's shareholders.
   3. To keep the multiple consistent, you add minority interest to enterprise value. Both numerator and denominator then represent the whole enterprise, including the part owned by others.
   4. Use the market value of the minority if the subsidiary is listed. Book value is the fallback and is usually a poor estimate.
   5. The alternative approach is to deconsolidate: strip the subsidiary's EBITDA out and value the parent's stake separately. Cleaner conceptually, more work, and it is what you do when the subsidiary is very different from the core business.
   6. The error to avoid is forgetting it entirely. If you ignore minority interest, a company that consolidates a large partly-owned subsidiary will look artificially cheap on EV/EBITDA, and that appears constantly in emerging market comp sets.

   Where candidates lose it

   Knowing the rule but not the reason. The reason is consistency between numerator and denominator, and being able to state that is what shows you understand enterprise value rather than having memorised the bridge.

   Expect next

   • Should you use book or market value for it?
   • When would you deconsolidate instead?
   • How does this distort a comp set?
3. 093What is a catalyst, and why do investors care so much about it?Research processIntermediatetechnicalHedge fundsLong-short funds

   Say this

   A specific identifiable event that causes the market to recognise the value you see. It matters because being right about value without a mechanism for the gap to close means you are just paying opportunity cost.

   Then walk it

   1. Types: results that break a trend, guidance revision, a capital markets day, an asset sale or spin-off, a refinancing, a regulatory decision, a patent or contract event, index inclusion, or activist involvement.
   2. Why it matters for returns: IRR is time-sensitive. Making 30 percent in one year is very different from making 30 percent over five, and without a catalyst you cannot estimate the timeline.
   3. For a short it is more than useful, it is essential, because of borrow costs and unlimited downside. A short without a catalyst is a position that bleeds while you wait.
   4. In a fund with quarterly capital scrutiny, the catalyst is also what allows you to hold through drawdown, because you can point to the event that resolves the debate.
   5. The counterargument, worth giving: long-horizon compounders often have no catalyst at all, and demanding one biases you toward event-driven situations and away from quality businesses that simply keep compounding. Buffett-style investing is explicitly catalyst-free.
   6. So my position: for shorts and for value situations, insist on a catalyst. For quality compounders, the catalyst is the passage of time and continued execution, and that is legitimate as long as you say so explicitly.

   Where candidates lose it

   Insisting every position needs a catalyst without acknowledging that long-duration compounding does not. Knowing when the rule applies and when it does not is the more sophisticated answer.

   Expect next

   • What is the catalyst on your best idea?
   • How long would you hold without one?
   • Does a compounder need a catalyst?

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.