What are the skills required for a financial analyst?

While there can be specific skill sets needed depending on the type of financial analyst, there are several key skill sets that all good financial analysts should have.

Most common skills performed by Financial Analyst include:

• Research Skills - Ability to gather data and information (e.g., historical, financial reports, accounting data, stock prices, macroeconomic data, industry market trends)

• Organizational Skills - Organizing and maintaining large data sets, financial reports, etc

• Analytical Skills - Ability to analyze financial results and make forecasts and projections (e.g., data modeling past information and historical data to calculate metrics like gross margin, net margin, fixed vs. variable costs, year-over-year growth rate, return on equity, return on assets, debt/equality ration earnings per share)

• Decision-Making Skills - Provide data-driven recommendations and opportunities to the company (e.g., use data to generates insights and recommendations on how to improve the operations of a business, such as how to grow revenue or increase market shares.)

• Technology Savvy - Ability to build databases, spreadsheets (e.g., MS Excel), and PowerPoint. Some employers require financial analysts to know programming languages such as SQL, Python, R.

• Communication Writing Skills - Ability to effectively communicate in a clear, concise, and persuasive manner, as well as making recommendations to team leaders, stakeholders, and various departments within the company.

• Attention to Detail - Building financial models requires not making any mistakes that can impact the findings. For example, a depreciation number could wrongly be typed as $686 instead of $868, leading to a completely different result.

  Also, attention to detail is important when choosing the best format to present their findings. Many companies have specific templates that are used.