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The equity specialist needs a comprehensive, integrated, yet focused framework that facilitates the critical analysis of competing valuation approaches. The specialist needs not only the ability to apply a broad range of valuation approaches but also an understanding of the relationships among those approaches and the criteria for deciding which techniques are most useful in given valuation situations. For example, under what circumstances does the free cash flow (FCF) approach yield more reliable valuation estimates than dividend discount models (DDMs)? When is a two-stage approach more helpful than a three-stage or an H-model approach? What are the relative merits of price-to-earnings per share (P/E), price to book value (P/B), and price to sales (P/S) models relative to DDM and FCF models? Similarly, the specialist should have significant insight into the practical implementation issues in applying various approaches, such as data availability and quality and the effect of violating underlying statistical assumptions when conducting valuation analyses.