Introduction to Profitability Ratios
The ultimate aim of all business is to generate profit. That is what the investors invest for, management plans for and employees execute for. Profitability Needs Context Two companies may be generating the exact same amount of rupee profits, however that does not mean that they are equally profitable. This is because profit is an […]
Two Period Dividend Discount Model
The next step towards understanding the dividend discount model is to extend the conclusions derived from the single step dividend model. This brings us to the two period dividend discount model. In this model we will use the same logic. However, we will extend the assumption regarding the holding period. Instead of selling his stock […]
Sustainable Growth Rate: Concept
We have studied the various discounted cash flow valuation models in this module. These different models need to be applied in different situations. We have studied these situations as well. However, regardless of which model is being applied, one thing remains constant. In the end, the growth rate of the company plateaus down at a […]
Why Do Corporations Get Away With Tax Avoidance ?
Some of the well-paid engineers in companies like Amazon pay about 45% of their income in taxes. They do so every year, and it seems unfair to them why the company that employs them gets away with paying about 1% taxes. Warren Buffet once famously remarked that he pays a smaller tax rate as compared […]
Revenue Based Financing
The manner in which startup companies obtain their financing can have a very large impact on the future of their business. In the previous articles, we have already discussed how bootstrapping as well as investments by professional investors work. Both of these approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages. Up until recently, it was assumed […]
“Cash is King” say the bigwigs on Wall Street. That is why the valuation of shares is done on the basis of discounted cash flow model rather than discounted earnings model.
The price to cash flow ratio provides an analyst with a shortcut for finding companies that have been undervalued in comparison to their cash flows.
Analysts can scan through the price to cash flow ratios of a number of companies. Then they can start paying more attention to the companies where these values seem to be abnormally low. This article describes price to cash flow ratio is more detail.
There are many different measures of what analysts consider to be the true cash flow of the company. Some analysts consider operating cash flow i.e. cash flow generated from regular activities to be the correct measure. Others think that the capital investments that the company needs to make must be separated and the resultant free cash flow provides a better picture of the company’s fundamentals.
Accordingly there are at least two cash flow measures that an analyst can look at and here are their formulas:
Price to Operating Cash Flow = Current Market Price / Operating Cash Flow
Price to Free Cash Flow = Current Market Price / Free Cash Flow
The price to cash flow ratio tells the investor the number of rupees that they are paying for every rupee in cash flow that the company earns. Thus if the price to cash flow ratio is 3, then the investors are paying 3 rupees for a stream of future cash flows of 1 rupee each. This cash flow is passed on to the investors as dividend. In case, it is reinvested in the business, it shows up as capital appreciation. Thus cash flow will help the investors gain in one way or another.
Charges like depreciation, changes in inventory and revenue policy do not affect the cash position making it the favorite of skeptics.
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