Analyzing the Firm’s Cash Flow • Importance of Cash flow: (a)it is the primary driver of a firm’s value, and (b) firms must have cash, not earnings, to pay their bills. • Cash flow (as opposed to accounting “profits”) is the primary ingredient in any financial valuation model. • From an accounting perspective, cash flow is summarized in a firm’s statement of cash flows. • From a financial perspective, firms often focus on: – operating cash flow, which is used in managerial decision- making, and – free cash flow, which is closely monitored by participants in the capital markets.
Developing the Statement of Cash Flows p.166-173 Section 4.1
• The statement of cash flows summarizes the firm’s
cash flow (inflow and outflow) over a given period of time. • Firm’s cash flows fall into three categories: 1. Operating flows: cash flows directly related to sale and production of the firm’s products and services. e.g. Honda selling a car. 2. Investment flows: cash flows associated with purchase and sale of both fixed assets and equity investments in other firms. e.g. buying new machines to start a new line of business. 3. Financing flows: cash flows that result from debt and equity financing transactions; include incurrence and repayment of debt, cash inflow from the sale of stock, and cash outflows to repurchase stock or pay cash dividends. Incurring either short-term or long-term debt will result in cash inflow while repaying debt would result in cash outflow.
Interpreting Statement of Cash Flows • The statement of cash flows ties the balance sheet at the beginning of the period with the balance sheet at the end of the period after considering the performance of the firm during the period through the income statement. • The net increase (or decrease) in cash and marketable securities should be equivalent to the difference between the cash and marketable securities on the balance sheet at the beginning of the year and the end of the year.
Operating Cash Flow • A firm’s operating Cash Flow (OCF) is the cash flow a firm generates from normal operations—from the production and sale of its goods and services. We exclude the impact of interest on cash flows, because we want a measure that captures the cash flow from operations, not by how the operations are financed. • OCF may be calculated as follows:
Where, NOPAT= Net Operating Profits After Taxes and T=Corporate Tax Rate
Free Cash Flow • Free cash flow (FCF) is the amount of cash flow available to investors (creditors and owners) after the firm has met all operating needs and paid for investments in net fixed assets (NFAI) and net current assets (NCAI).
Where:
NFAI represent net investment that a firm makes in fixed assets:
purchase minus sales of fixed assets
NCAI represent the net investment made by the firm in current
operating cash flow, and free cash flow. The statement of cash flows is divided into operating, investment, and financing flows. It reconciles changes in the firm’s cash flows with changes in cash and marketable securities for the period. From a strict financial point of view, a firm’s operating cash flow is defined to exclude interest. Of greater importance is a firm’s free cash flow, which is the amount of cash flow available to creditors and owners.