Overview
Canalyst Models provide financial professionals with an extensive library of 4,000+ pre-built, highly accurate, and granular financial models that update automatically, saving time and enabling faster, more confident decision-making. With unmatched data accuracy and industry-specific KPIs, Canalyst models equip users with the detailed insights needed to streamline analysis, build scenarios, and outperform the competition.
These are no data sheets—they’re fully linked, driveable models with verified historicals and the most relevant data a company reports in filings, earnings presentations, supplementals, and press releases.
Check out this video walkthrough of one of our models to see it in action:
Finding Models in AlphaSense
Canalyst Models can be found in the Industry Comps and Models module on the left tab of your AlphaSense account.
Once you’ve clicked the module, navigate to the Company Models tab where you can use the search bar to search for models by company name, ticker, or industry and filter your results by Sector, Region, and Update Type to hone in on the models you’re interested in.
In our New Models card, you’ll also be able to see the latest models we’ve added to our coverage, whether they were added for an IPO announcement or part of our effort to expand coverage, and when they were added.
Downloading a Model
Once you’ve found a model you’re interested in, you can download the Excel file to start your analysis. Before you download, you can choose from a few formatting and layout options to help our models look and feel more like your own:
Period Order: Choose between Chronological or Annual Grouped periods
Drivers Worksheet: Choose whether you prefer to have a separate worksheet in the model with centralized drivers and key outputs or to keep them in the main Model worksheet
Color Scheme: Choose between Canalyst (drivers in red, historical value and forecast formulas in black, annual columns on blue background) and Classic (drivers and historical hardcodes in blue, formulas in black, links in green, annual columns on gray background)
Using the Models
Front Page tab
When you first open a model, you’ll land on the Front Page tab where you can see when the model was last updated, what it was updated for, and a comments section where we’ll add any relevant things to know about the company, like stock splits, acquisitions, or divestitures.
You can also populate a model with real time stock pricing and consensus estimates if you use Bloomberg, Capital IQ, FactSet, or Eikon by selecting your provider from the dropdown and turning on Real-Time Stock Price.
Note: You must have your provider’s Excel Add-In installed and be logged in for these features to work.
Model tab
The Model tab is where you’ll find the historical and placeholder estimates for the hundreds, or even thousands, of metrics our analysts capture for each company.
To make it easier to navigate our models, every model is laid out the same way:
All historicals are to the left of the vertical black line, with forecasts to the right
The more company-specific data like segments, operating metrics, and margins will be at the top followed by the full three statements as reported by the company
Some models will have additional sections like more robust breakdowns of stock based compensation and potentially dilutive securities, credit analysis, guidance analysis, and more
All historical data is sourced by our team of sector-focused analysts from primary documents like filings, press releases, investor presentations, and supplementals, then put through a series of tech-enabled QA checks to ensure accuracy.
The historical data in our models goes as far back as 2009, while forecasts go five fiscal years in the future. All numbers in the forecasted section of our models are placeholders and are meant to be edited by our customers. When possible, our team tunes forecasts to guidance or consensus, but those numbers are not meant to be used as-is.
Guidance tab
In the Guidance tab, you’ll be able to see all the metrics that management guides to and compare actuals to guidance to see how well management has been in forecasting their own performance.
For each metric, you can see:
Whether the guidance is forward-looking or historical
The period the guidance is for
Low, Mid, and High values
Actuals or estimates (depending on the period) for the guided metrics from the model
Absolute and relative difference of the actual or estimated figure to the guidance for the metric
When the guidance was provided by the company
A link to the file where the guidance was pulled from
Summary tab
The Summary tab is a one-page overview of the model to help you get a quick sense of company performance across key financial and operating metrics.
The Summary tab doesn’t have any data that isn’t already in the Model tab, and all metrics on the Summary tab link back to the Model tab.
Update Log tab
The Update Log tab shows you a full log of every time the model was updated, what the update was for, comments on why the update occurred, and links to any documents used in the update.
Non-standard tabs
Some of our models will have nonstandard tabs that include additional information and data.
Some examples of these are:
Supplemental Data tab: An extension of the Model tab where you’ll find things like historical segments or key metrics that aren’t used to forecast
Exec Comp tab: A breakdown of executive compensation that shows how much of their compensation is tied to equity
Canalyst Modeling Tools Excel Add-in
Premium Models subscribers also get access to the Canalyst Modeling Tools Excel Add-in. With the add-in installed, you can update your customized Canalyst model in 1-click, audit Canalyst model data to the source filing, drop in pre-built valuation and analysis templates like DCF and bull-bear-base, and more.