CFA L2 Equity Valuation (Part 1) Flashcards
What is the purpose of valuation?
Determining the value of an asset.
Intrinsic value (IV) of an asset
The valuation of an asset or security by someone who has complete understanding of the characteristics of the asset or issuing firm. It’s the PV of future CFs (CFs can be either dividends, free CFs, or RI).
- Not necessarily a perfect valuation.
- Most relevant metric for public equities
Estimated Value (VE)
Investors’ estimates of intrinsic value
True or false: Analysts seeking to produce positive risk-adjusted returns do so by trying to identify securities for which their estimate of intrinsic value are the same as the current market price?
False, analysts seeking to produce positive risk-adjusted returns do so by trying to identify securities for which their estimate of intrinsic value differs from current market price.
Relationship: IV of analyst - price = (actual IV - price) + (IV of analyst - actual IV)
True or false: All models studied in CFA level 2 are based on the going concern assumption?
True
Liquidation value
When a firm is no longer a going concern, this is the estimate of what the assets of the firm would bring if sold separately, net of the company’s liabilities
Orderly liquidation value
Same as liquidation value but assumes an adequate amount of time to realize liquidation value.
Fair Market Value
The price at which a hypothetical willing, informed, and able seller would trade an asset to a willing, informed, and able buyer.
Similar to fair value used in financial reporting.
- Over time, the fair market value of a firm should match its market price.
Investment value
The value of a stock to a particular buyer.
- May depend on the buyer’s specific needs and expectations, as well as perceived synergies with existing buyer assets.
- With acquisitions, valuing a firm’s investment value will be more relevant than intrinsic value.
General steps in equity valuation (top-down approach):
- Understand the business
- Forecast company performance
- Select the appropriate valuation model
- Convert the forecasts into a valuation
- Apply the valuation conclusions
Uses of equity valuation
- Stock selection
- Reading the market
- Projecting the value of corporate actions: value projected M&A, MBOs, etc.
- Fairness opinions: is the price in M&A fair to all sides
- Planning and consulting: evaluate the effects of proposed corporate strategies on the firm’s stock price, in order to pursue those that have the greatest value to shareholders
- Communication w/ analysts and investors
- Valuation of private firms
- Portfolio mgmt
Porter’s five elements of industry structure
- Threat of new entrants
- Threat of substitutes
- Bargaining power of buyers
- Bargaining power of suppliers
- Rivalry among existing competitors
3 generic strategies companies use to compete and generate profits:
- Cost leadership: Being the lowest-cost producer of a good.
- Product differentiation: creating a specialized product so that it will command a premium
- Focus: firms can target segment(s) of an industry using either #1 or #2
Cost leadership DOES NOT mean decreasing quality!
Quality of financial statement analysis
Since the basic building blocks of equity valuation comes from useful accounting info, analysts must investigate the issues associated with the accuracy & detail of a firm’s disclosures
True or false: An analyst can often only discern important results of management discretion through a detailed examination of the footnotes accompanying the financial reports?
True
Quality of earnings issues can be broken down into several categories:
- Accelerating or premature recognition of income: firms use a variety of techniques to justify the recognition of income before it traditionally would have been recognized (ex: bill & hold).
- Reclassifying gains & nonoperating income: this involves reclassifying extraordinary gains as operating income.
- Expense recognition & losses: Delaying the recognition of expenses, capitalizing expenses, and classifying operating expenses as nonoperating expenses.
- Amortization, depreciation, and discount rates: these can reduce current expenses.
- Off b/s issues
Warning signs of poor earnings quality:
- Past SEC violations
- Related-party transactions
- Excessive loans to employees.
- Poor accounting disclosures.
- High mgmt and/or director turnover.
- Consulting services provided by an audit firm.
- Disputes w/ or changes in auditors.
- Executive compensation tied to stock price.
- Declining margins or market share.
- Pressure to meet debt covenants or earnings expectation.
Absolute valuation models
A model that estimates a firm’s intrinsic value w/o comparing it to other firms.
- Examples of models include FCFs, residual income models, DDMs, or asset-based models that estimates a firm’s value as the sum of the market value of the assets it owns or controls. Asset-based models are commonly used for natural resource firms.
Relative valuation models
Models that determine the value of an asset in relation to the values of other assets.
- These models are based on the Law of One Price.
Dividend discount model (DDM)
Estimates the value of a firm’s stock today as the PV of all expected dividends discounted at the opportunity cost of capital.
- This is a type of absolute valuation model.
Sum-of-the-parts value/Breakup value/Private market value
Estimates the value of a firm by valuing individual parts of the firm and adding them up to determine the value for the company as a whole.
- Useful when the company operates multiple divisions/product lines w/ different business models & risk characteristics
Conglomerate discount
The idea that investors apply a markdown to the value of a company that operates in multiple unrelated industries, compared to the value a company that has a single industry focus. It is the amt by which MV under-represents sum-of-the-parts value.
3 explanations for conglomerate discounts:
- Internal capital inefficiency: The firm’s allocation of capital to different divisions may not have been based on sound decisions.
- Endogenous (internal) factors
- Research measurment errors: Some hypothesize that conglomerate discounts do not exist, but rather are a result of incorrect measurement.
Criteria for choosing an approach to value a company
An analyst must determine whether the approach fits the characteristics of the company, has appropriate input data, and is suitable for the purpose of the analysis.
- An analyst may use multiple models and see if there are major discrepancies w/ results.
3 definitions of future cash flows (FCFs) for valuation purposes
- Dividends
- Free CFs
- Residual income
Pros and cons of considering dividends as FCF
pros: Dividends are the most tangible form of CF. Also, if a firm is sold, investors will often receive a premium for expected future dividends. Dividends are also less volatile than the other definitions.
cons: Difficult for firms that do not currently pay dividends. Also, these models are more beneficial for minority shareholders. Lastly, some firms may keep dividends small for tax purposes and utilize stock buybacks.
When are dividends appropriate to be considered FCF?
- The company has a history of dividend payments.
- The firm’s dividend policy is clear and tied to earnings performance. The $ value of dividends should increase as earnings performance increase.
- When the valuation perspective is that of a minority shareholder.
Free CF to the firm (FCFF)/Unlevered FCFs
The CF generated by the firm’s CORE OPERATIONS that is in excess of the capital investment required to sustain the firm’s current productive capacity.
FCFF considers debt and equity holders, whereas FCFE is only equity.
- Net borrowings from bondholders IS NOT considered a part of FCFF since it’s not a part of core operations.
Free CF to equity (FCFE)/Levered FCFs
The cash available to stockholders after funding capital requirements and expenses associated with debt financing
Pros and cons of considering free CFs as FCF
Pros: Free CF models can be applied to many firms, regardless of dividend policies or capital structures. It is also a good model for controlling and minority shareholders.
Cons: negative free cash flow complicates the cash flow forecast and makes the estimates less reliable.
When are free CFs appropriate to be considered FCF?
- For firms that do not pay dividends or dividends are not related to earnings.
- For firms that have positive free CFs.
- When the valuation perspective is that of a controlling shareholder.
Residual income
The amount of earnings that exceeds the investors’ required return.
Pros and cons of considering residual interest as FCF
Pros: can be applied to firms with negative free cash flow and to dividend- and non-dividend-paying firms.
Cons: requires in-depth analysis of the firm’s accounting accruals. Management discretion in establishing accruals for both income and expense may obscure the true results for a period. If the accounting is not transparent or if the quality of the firm’s reporting is poor, the accurate estimation of residual income is likely to be difficult.
- Accruals are revenues earned or expenses incurred that impact a company’s net income, although cash has not yet exchanged hands.
When is residual interest appropriate to be considered FCFs?
- For firms that do not pay dividends.
- Firms that have negative free CFs
- Firms w/ transparent financial reporting and high-quality earnings
True or false: Typically for younger companies, considering dividends as FCFs is more appropriate?
False, typically more mature companies benefit from considering dividends as FCFs.
Steps to dividend discount model (DDM)
- Estimate future dividends.
- Determine the required rate of return.
- Discount #1 using #2 as the discount rate.
One period DDM
DDM for one period. If current market price < V0, the stock is undervalued. If opposite, it’s overvalued.
calculation: V0= (D1 + P1) ÷ (1 + r)
- V0 = value of stock today
- D1= expected dividend in next period
- P1 = price expected upon sale at end of period 1.
- r = required return on equity
Two period DDM
DDM for two periods.
calulation: V0 = [ D1 ÷ (1 + r)^1 ] + [ (D2 + P2) ÷ (1 + r)^2 ]
Multi-period DDM
DDM for any number of periods
calculation: V0 = (D1 ÷ (1 + r)^1) + (D2 ÷ (1 + r)^2) … + ((Dn + Pn) ÷ (1 + r)^n)
How to forecast dividends for future periods?
We use models that assume some growth pattern in dividends, such as:
* Gordon Growth model
* H-model
* Two-stage growth model
* Three-stage growth model
Gordon Growth Model (GGM)/constant growth model
Assumes the dividends grow at a constant rate indefinitely.
Calculation: [ D0 * (1 + g) ] ÷ (r - g) OR D1 ÷ (r - g)
- g = dividend growth rate
- A perpetual dividend growth rate >= 5% should cause an analyst to raise their eyebrows
Assumptions of GGM
- The firm expects to pay a dividend in one year (D1)
- Dividends grow at a constant rate
- The growth rate < the required return on equity
Weaknesses to using constant growth model
- Value is sensitive to required return on equity and constant growth rate
- The model cannot easily be applied to non-dividend paying firms
- Unpredictable growth patterns of some firms would make using the model difficult and the resulting valuations unreliable.
Situations where constant growth rate is appropriate:
- Mature firm
- Valuing a broad-based equity index
- Terminal value in more complex models
- International valuation
- Can be used to supplement other, more complex valuation methods.
How to calculate implied growth rate given market price?
g = r - (D1 ÷ P0)
How to value a firm that pays out dividends but also has excess returns that are kept in RE?
V0 = (E1 ÷ r) + PVGO
- E1 = earnings in the next period
- PVGO = PV of growth opportunities