Hedge Funds and Money Laundering
Money laundering is a heinous crime. Although it does not directly lead to loss of human lives, it allows money to reach the hands of wrong individuals. The proceeds from money laundering end up in the hands of gangsters, warlords, drug dealers and terror groups. No financial institutions would want to enable such transactions. However, […]
Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE)
In the previous articles, we have discussed the concept of convertible notes. We have also seen the various pros and cons of convertible notes. However, convertible notes are not the only hybrid security that can be used by startups if they want to raise funds. A Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator named “Y Combinator” has created […]
Prime Brokers in Investment Banking
Investment banks all over the world have deep relationships with hedge funds. This is because investment banks often become the source of funds for the highly leveraged investments which are made by hedge funds. These funds are often made available through an organization called a prime broker. It needs to be understood that most prime […]
Fixed-Rate Mortgage vs. Adjustable Rate Mortgage
We already know that a mortgage is one of the biggest expenses that any investor has. It is also common knowledge that the interest rate is the biggest determining factor of the dollar value of each month’s mortgage payments. The interest rate of the mortgage is often the subject of a lot of discussions. This […]
Opportunity Cost of Capital – Alternate Uses of Money
Opportunity cost of a capital is a term unique to economics and finance. It is unique in the sense that you will not find mention of opportunity cost of capital in the accounting books. It is not an explicit cost which is paid out of the pocket. Hence, there is no mention of this cost […]
Once upon a time, investors and analysts used to believe in ratios that have been calculated based on the earnings that the company has stated in the Income Statement. Alas! That was once upon a time. Of late, there have been a huge number of frauds and malpractices that have come to the fore. All these malpractices have taught the investors one lesson only.
The lesson is that fact that corporate income statements and balance sheets are susceptible to fraud. This is because the numbers in these statements are based on the policies that management sets. Thus, in the seas of fraud, they have found truth in cash flow ratios. Here is why cash flow ratios are so important and form the backbone of any financial analysis conducted today.
Cash flow is fact, all else is error, or at least susceptible to error. The company cannot fudge how much cash it has in the bank. The auditors are supposed to confirm with the bank the amount of cash that they have in the company’s accounts and verify the same with what the company has stated. How the company received this cash is also made clear by the cash flow statement. Hence, it is the least susceptible to fraud and provides the truest picture of the state of affairs.
The company cannot pay its employees in earnings. Neither can it pay its creditors or suppliers in earnings.
The fact of the matter is that the company needs cash like humans need oxygen to stay alive. A few days without adequate cash and the company may not survive. This is the reason investors want to ensure that they have enough cash on hand to meet forthcoming obligations.
To many investors it seems insane that expenses like interest be compared with earnings since if earnings are not converted to cash, they cannot pay expenses. Therefore cash is what matters!
The company invests cash when it makes capital expenditures. These capital expenditures are what makes the company’s profits and cash flow grow in the future. Therefore, it makes more sense to consider cash flow rather than earnings while trying to gauge the rate at which the company will grow in the future.
There is a slight problem with cash flow ratios though. There has been no consensus on what constitutes cash flow. Hence there are many measures of cash flow instead of one. This leads to there being multiple ratios.
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