Strategic Financial Modeling
Strategic Financial Modeling
Strategic Financial
Modeling
Using Excel
=NPV(rate,value1,[value2],…)
Return the NPV of the annual flows
NPV XNPV
IRR is the discount rate needed to make the NPV equal 0. The higher the IRR,
the more valuable the project is. It is useful when comparing between two
projects, or when comparing a project against a company WACC (Weighted
Average Cost of Capital).
=IRR(values, [guess])
Returns the internal rate of return for a series of cash flows represented by
the numbers in values.
1. The IRR assumes that cash flows are reinvested at the IRR level;
2. Another major issue with IRR occurs when a project has different
periods of positive and negative cash flows. In these cases, the IRR
produces more than one number, causing uncertainty and confusion.
3. Cash flows are often reinvested at the cost of capital, not at the same
rate at which they were generated in the first place. IRR assumes that
the growth rate remains constant from project to project.
With regular IRR, it assumes all cash flows occur on Dec 31, but with XIRR, we
can tell Excel that the first cash flow is in the middle of the year. This has a
substantial impact on the internal rate of return calculation.
If you use the =XIRR() formula in Excel, then you have complete flexibility
over the time periods of the cash flows. In order to do this, enter two series
in your formula: