Quantitative analysis

When a securities analyst focuses on a corporation's financial data in order to project potential future performance, the process is called quantitative analysis.

This methodology involves looking at profit-and-loss statements, sales and earnings histories, and the statistical state of the economy rather than at more subjective factors such as management experience, employee attitudes, and brand recognition.

While some people feel that quantitative analysis by itself gives an incomplete picture of a company's prospects, advocates tend to believe that numbers tell the whole story.