| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Rafael Resendes (Co-Founder), Dan Obrycki (Co-Founder) |
| Services | Securities research |
| Website | www |
The Applied Finance Group (AFG) is an American institutional equity research firm founded in 1995 by Rafael Resendes and Dan Obrycki. [1] [2]
In 1995 Rafael Resendes and Daniel Obrycki founded the Applied Finance Group in Chicago, Illinois as an independent research company. AFG sought to build a more sophisticated Value Based Metric to measure a company's true economic profit. With that goal in mind, AFG developed its proprietary framework, Economic Margin (EM), to evaluate corporate performance from an economic cash flow perspective. [3] [4] [5] In 2001, Morningstar, Inc. adopted AFG's Methodology to launch the Morningstar Rating for stocks. [6] AFG expanded to its second office in Fresno, California in 2003. Resendes relocated to work as head of the Fresno Office, while Obrycki managed from Chicago.
In 2004, AFG created a large cap model portfolio of stocks called the AFG50. AFG created the AFG50 portfolio to provide Trust Departments and small RIAs a product that could serve as an outsource/research team. [7] [8] Later that year AFG partnered with Chief Executive Magazine and Drew Morris, CEO of "Great Numbers!", to launch the Chief Executive/Applied Finance Group Wealth Creation Rankings, a research instrument used to rank companies based on their value and ability to create value. [9] In 2009 AFG began providing research internationally for the first time in the company's history.
Applied Finance Group was co-founded Rafael Resendes and by Dan Obrycki.
Resendes is the Managing Director for Toreador Research and Trading. [10]
Prior to co-founding AFG, Resendes was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and served as director of research for HOLT Value Associates. Rafael graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Economic Analysis and obtained an MBA from the University of Chicago. [11] [12]
Resendes has also contributed his insight to various news outlets such as CNBC, CNN, Fox News, RealClearPolitics. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
Prior to co-founding AFG, Obrycki was the manager of research for a portfolio consulting firm, HOLT Value Associates. Daniel graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri-Rolla with a BS in geological engineering and obtained his MBA with a finance specialization from the University of Chicago. [18]
Obrycki has also served as an adjunct professor at DePaul University in Chicago. [19]
AFG launched Value Expectations in 2008, a stock blog and investment newsletter. Value Expectations was created to serve as an outlet covering topics on corporate performance and equity valuation. [20]