How Seaport Research Partners Uses Filot to Expand Coverage

Seaport Research Partners is a sell-side equity research firm built around senior analysts. Each of them models companies in a way they have refined over years. Seaport's analysts now use Filot to build and update those models in their own format and methodology, so they can cover more companies without changing how they work.

"Filot saves our analysts significant time building and updating models in their own format and methodology, enabling them to increase coverage and focus on higher-value work."

Justin Cable, Co-Head of Seaport Research Partners, Director of Equity Research

Where the Time Went

Adding a company to coverage meant the analyst building the model by hand: pulling years of historicals from filings, laying out the segments, and setting up the forecast the way they always do. Every quarter after that, each model on the list had to be updated from the press release and the filing. The more names an analyst covered, the more of the week went to keeping models current and the less went to research.

Teaching Filot How Each Analyst Models

Seaport's analysts did not move to a Filot template. Each analyst starts in the Custom Tuning Studio, where they give Filot a few of their own models as references and show it how they would initiate coverage: how they lay out the statements, build segments, treat one-time items and set up the forecast. They correct it until the output looks like their own work. From then on, Filot builds new models the same way.

Data Sources

Filot connects to the sources the analysts already work from: SEC filings, global filings, company presentations, earnings transcripts, scanned documents and external data providers. The analyst does not collect documents or key in numbers. Filot finds the figures, including items like restructuring charges, FX impacts and segment detail, and puts them where that analyst's model expects them.

Use Cases

Initiating coverage. Once Filot has learned an analyst's approach, it creates the new model end to end, following that analyst's methodology. One analyst had Filot build a three-statement model for a company he was considering for coverage, just like his existing models. Another used it to expand his coverage list outright.

"I have built 12 models from scratch that are closely formatted to the template I have spent years building, this has saved me hundreds of hours of work. Filot's ability to pull from SEC filings, pull out restructuring charges, FX impacts, segment details seems extremely accurate."

John Kernan, Managing Director

Earnings updates. When a company reports, Filot pulls the quarter from the press release and 8-K, including non-GAAP adjustments, and updates the analyst's existing model.

Rolling models forward. Filot adds new quarterly estimates and the next annual forecast in the same convention as the periods already in the model, using company guidance from the release as inputs.

Custom data work. One analyst had Filot update an industry statistics database from four 68-page quarterly slide presentations. These were ordinary text-heavy decks, not data tables. A project like this was always possible, but it rarely justified a senior analyst's day. With Filot doing the extraction, it does.

Checking the Work

An error in published research is costly, so none of this is useful unless the analyst can verify it. Filot reviews its own output before handing it back, and its auditing interface lets the analyst trace every figure to the place in the source document it came from. The analyst signs off on a model they can stand behind.

"Filot is cost-effective, easy to use, and an indispensable tool for any analyst. My highest recommendation."

Richard Safran, Managing Director, Aerospace & Defense, Seaport Research Partners

Seaport's analysts keep the models and methodology they have always used, and spend more of their time on coverage and research. To see Filot work on your own models, contact your Filot representative.