Comprehensive analysis, in the financial world, refers to the complete analysis of every relevant aspect of a company’s financial operations. The goal of such analysis is to provide a complete picture of the financial status of a company both in the current time and projected into the future. Performing a comprehensive analysis requires gathering all of the information from a company’s financial reports, including both the most current report as well as reports from the past. This information is used to calculate financial ratios, which are metrics used to measure different aspects of a company’s operations and compare them to similar companies within the same industry.
When investors set out to decide which companies deserve their capital, they often do a rigorous examination of the company’s financial information. In this way, they can best decide whether or not a company is a worthy investment. By the same token, the companies themselves may wish to find out how well their numbers stack up to other competitors in the same industry. A comprehensive analysis can achieve these goals by dissecting every aspect of a company’s financial data.