How the research is done.
Ardmore Investment Research is an independent equity research practice. It exists to produce work that stands on its own merits: sourced from primary documents, modelled from first principles and issued with a stated view attached.
Ardmore is built around a long time horizon per name, with no report issued until the analysis is genuinely finished.
Each report is a complete pitch rather than a note. It sets out what the business does and how it earns money, the industry it competes in, the thesis and what the market appears to be missing, the catalysts that would prove the view right, the risks that would prove it wrong, and a valuation supported by a full three-statement model.
Ardmore holds no commercial relationship with any company under coverage.
Every report is a complete pitch rather than a note, and each one works through the same four questions. Holding to a single structure means any two reports can be read against each other without translation.
- The business How the company actually earns money - the segments, the unit economics, the industry it competes in - and whether its position is durable enough to defend returns rather than merely describe them.
- The disagreement Where the view departs from consensus, the evidence behind that departure, and the dated events that would resolve it one way or the other. A report with no disagreement in it is not worth writing.
- The downside The bear case argued in full, with each risk sized rather than listed and paired with whatever genuinely offsets it. Where the thesis is fragile, the report says so plainly.
- The numbers A three-statement model built from filings and driven forward on stated assumptions, valued on discounted cash flow, cross-checked against comparable companies, and stress-tested so the reader can see how much of the target rests on judgement.
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Screening
Candidates are identified on business quality first - returns on capital, competitive position and the durability of earnings - before valuation is considered at all.
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Primary research
Filings, transcripts, investor days and industry sources are read directly. Nothing enters a report on the strength of a secondary summary.
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Modelling
A three-statement model is built from historical filings and driven forward on stated assumptions, then valued on a discounted cash flow with comparable company and precedent transaction cross-checks.
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Challenge
The thesis is argued against before it is published. Risks are sized, the bear case is written in full, and the model is stress-tested against the assumptions the view depends on most.
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Publication
The report is released with a recommendation, a price target and the full supporting analysis, and is added to the research register.
See how the work reads.
The published register is the best account of what Ardmore does.