How To Become An Equity Analyst: What It Is and Career Path

What is an equity analyst and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Brian Meehan

Equity analysts are experts in the stock market, which they use to provide investment advice to investors, brokers, or their company's investment portfolio, An equity analyst's day revolves around stocks, bonds, and other securities. They monitor trends and analyze performance of individual stocks using analytical tools like MATLAB and SQL. They try to predict future movements within the segment of the market that they specialize in by using financial modeling. However, an equity analyst cannot spend their whole day buried in stocks and data. They need to communicate their analysis to clients or partners that are less stock-savvy than they are, using clear language and presentations. This helps their clients make informed decisions.

A college degree is usually required to be an equity analyst. About half have a bachelor's degree in finance or a related field, while others go on to earn a master's.

Equity analysts need to start off as interns or financial analysts before they can be trusted to follow something as volatile as the stock market. Once they earn this position, equity analysts can earn an average salary of $110,187 a year.

What general advice would you give to an equity analyst?

Brian Meehan

Assistant Professor of Economics, Campbell School of Business, Berry College

My advice would be to apply broadly for jobs and take advantage of the robust set of career opportunities a degree in economics provides. It also gives you a better gauge of the opportunity cost (next best alternative) of accepting a job. Try to determine what that best alternative is. Additional training can also be a good option. Those individuals interested in graduate schools, professional schools, law schools, MBAs, etc. should look into these opportunities. Improving your human capital stock (via training and education), while weathering a recession, and then capitalizing on a healthier job market at the end of this training, is a pretty good route (assuming the recession is short).

ScoreEquity AnalystUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $103,715

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.8

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.10%

Asian 14.09%

Black or African American 5.64%

Hispanic or Latino 7.67%

Unknown 4.50%

White 68.00%

Gender

female 23.00%

male 77.00%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

5.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an equity analyst

Explore equity analyst education requirements

Most common equity analyst degrees

Bachelor's

74.5 %

Master's

22.2 %

Associate

1.5 %

Start to develop specific equity analyst skills

Skills	Percentages
Financial Models	7.27%
Equities	6.04%
Discounted Cash Flow	5.83%
Securities	4.55%
Portfolio Companies	4.40%

Complete relevant equity analyst training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New equity analysts learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an equity analyst based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real equity analyst resumes.

Research equity analyst duties and responsibilities

Manage trade executions and broker relationships for all portfolio positions across several banks, prime brokerage accounts and electronic commodities exchanges.
Conduct fundamental analysis of securities own or being consider for inclusion in domestic equity mutual fund.
Conduct analysis on prospective names in buy universe using DCF, comps, historical, and extensive fundamental scrutiny.
Conduct fundamental and technical analysis on diversify pool of global equities across all sectors.

Prepare your equity analyst resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your equity analyst resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an equity analyst resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable equity analyst resume templates

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