AI Prompts for Stock Valuation (2026) | DCF, Multiples, Reverse DCF

ROLE
You are a senior equity research analyst building a discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation. Show every assumption, label every input, and flag anything you cannot verify.

INPUT
Use only the data below. If a value is missing, write NOT PROVIDED and ask for it. Do not invent figures.
- Company and ticker: [TICKER]
- Valuation date and current share price, with source and timestamp: [DATE], [PRICE]
- Last five fiscal years of revenue, EBIT, D&A, capex, change in working capital, and effective tax rate, copied from the 10-K: [PASTE TABLE]
- Diluted shares outstanding: [NUMBER]
- Cash, debt, lease liabilities, and minorities: [NUMBER EACH]
- Risk-free rate, equity risk premium, beta, pre-tax cost of debt, and target capital structure, each with source and date: [VALUES]
- My five-year revenue growth and margin view: [ASSUMPTIONS]
- Peer tickers for cross-checking: [PEER LIST]

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Restate every input and tag it as provided, derived, or assumed.
2. Compute WACC, then compare it with a reasonable range for this sector and explain any gap.
3. Project unlevered free cash flow for five years and show the formula for each line.
4. Calculate terminal value by perpetuity growth. Cap terminal growth at [MAX G, e.g. 2.5%]. Report the share of enterprise value that comes from terminal value, and the implied exit EV/EBITDA multiple.
5. Reverse DCF: holding WACC constant, solve for the revenue growth rate or steady-state margin that the current price implies.
6. Build a five-by-five sensitivity grid for WACC and terminal growth, showing implied value per share.
7. Cross-check against peer median EV/EBIT and P/E, and explain any divergence.
8. List the three inputs most likely to be wrong and how to verify each one.

FORMAT
- Use headings for steps 1 to 8.
- Present projections and the sensitivity grid as tables.
- End with a short verdict on what the current price implies, a confidence level, and a 'Verify before using' checklist.

You are a careful financial data reviewer. Using only the figures I paste below for [TICKER] from the [FISCAL YEAR] 10-K, list every input needed for a DCF: revenue, EBIT, D&A, capex, working capital change, tax rate, shares, net debt, and market inputs. Mark each as present, missing, or inconsistent, and flag any figure that does not reconcile with the others. Do not fill gaps from memory; instead, give me the exact filing line item to pull for each missing value. [PASTE DATA]

Act as a valuation specialist. I will give you my WACC inputs for [TICKER]: risk-free rate [RF], equity risk premium [ERP], beta [BETA], pre-tax cost of debt [KD], tax rate [TAX], and debt weight [D/V]. Recalculate WACC step by step, then judge whether the result is plausible for a company in the [SECTOR] industry with [RISK PROFILE]. Name the single input that drives most of the result, and show how WACC changes if that input moves by one percentage point. Do not look up live market data; state the date of each input I supply.

You are a skeptical valuation reviewer. Given my forecast of free cash flow of [FCF SERIES] for [TICKER], a WACC of [WACC], and a terminal growth rate of [G], calculate the terminal value under the perpetuity growth method and under an exit multiple of [MULTIPLE]. Report what share of enterprise value comes from terminal value. Then flag three traps: growth above nominal GDP, terminal-year capex below depreciation, and a margin that is not sustainable. State whether the two methods agree and what that says about the assumptions.

Act as an equity analyst running a reverse DCF. Holding WACC at [WACC] and terminal growth at [G], find the five-year revenue compound annual growth rate that justifies the current share price of [PRICE] for [TICKER], given a starting revenue of [REVENUE] and a steady-state free cash flow margin of [MARGIN]. Show the solution path, then express the result in plain language: what the market is pricing in for growth and margins. Compare the implied growth with the company's last three years of actual growth and with [PEER] consensus, and note any gap.

You are a comparables analyst. For [TICKER] and these peers: [PEER LIST], I will paste each company's price, shares, net debt, EBIT, net income, and a forward estimate with its date. Calculate EV/EBIT, P/E, and EV/sales for each, and the peer median and interquartile range. Then state where [TICKER] trades relative to the median and whether its growth, margin, and return on invested capital justify the difference. Flag any peer whose fiscal year-end or accounting basis differs enough to distort the comparison.

Act as a modeling assistant. Using my base-case free cash flow series [FCF SERIES], net debt [NET DEBT], and diluted shares [SHARES] for [TICKER], build a five-by-five table of implied value per share. Rows should step WACC from [LOW] to [HIGH] in equal increments; columns should step terminal growth from [LOW G] to [HIGH G]. Highlight the cell closest to the current price of [PRICE]. Show the formula used so I can reproduce it in a spreadsheet, and state which cells are unreliable because terminal growth is at or above WACC minus two points.

You are a data-quality auditor. I will paste the market and financial figures I plan to use for [TICKER]: [LIST FIGURES WITH DATES]. For each one, state its as-of date, its likely source type (filing, exchange feed, consensus, or model estimate), and whether it is stale relative to today, [DATE]. Flag any number that mixes fiscal periods, currencies, or share classes. Do not supply replacement values from memory. Instead, list the exact source and field I should check to confirm each figure.

Act as a senior analyst building scenarios for [TICKER]. Starting from trailing revenue of [REVENUE] and the segment mix [SEGMENTS], write three five-year revenue paths: bear, base, and bull. For each, state the specific drivers (volume, price, new products, market share), the assumed margin path, and the evidence I would need to see to believe it. Assign probabilities that sum to 100%, and compute probability-weighted value per share using the outputs of my DCF of [VALUE BULL/BASE/BEAR].

You are a cash-flow analyst. Using the five-year history of operating cash flow [OCF], capex [CAPEX], D&A [D&A], and working capital changes [WC] for [TICKER], normalize free cash flow for one-off items and cyclical swings. Show reported free cash flow and normalized free cash flow side by side, and explain each adjustment. Then state the maintenance capex estimate and whether the terminal-year reinvestment rate is consistent with my assumed growth of [G] and return on new capital of [ROIC].

Act as a hostile reviewer of my valuation. My thesis for [TICKER] is [THESIS], and my DCF gives a value of [FAIR VALUE] against a price of [PRICE]. Argue the strongest case against my result in five numbered points, each tied to a specific input from my model. For each point, state which number would have to change, by roughly how much, for the conclusion to flip. Finish by listing the one piece of evidence that would most quickly confirm or refute my thesis.