As an investor, you know that it pays to follow the cash. If you figure out how a company moves its money, you might eventually find some of that cash flowing into your pockets.
In this series, we'll highlight four companies in an industry and compare their "cash king margins" over time, trying to determine which has the greatest likelihood of putting cash back in your pocket. After all, a company can pay dividends and buy back stock only after it's received cash -- not just when it books those accounting figments known as "profits."
Today, let's look at Novartis (NYSE: NVS ) and three of its peers.
The cash king margin
Looking at a company's cash flow statement can help you determine whether its free cash flow actually backs up its reported profit. Companies that can create 10% or more free cash flow from their revenue can be powerful compounding machines for your portfolio. A sustained high cash king margin can be a good predictor of long-term stock returns.
To find the cash king margin, divide the free cash flow from the cash flow statement by sales:
Cash king margin = Free cash flow / sales
Let's take McDonald's as an example. In the four quarters ending last June, the restaurateur generated $6.87 billion in operating cash flow. It invested about $2.44 billion in property, plant, and equipment. To calculate free cash flow, subtract McDonald's investment ($2.44 billion) from its operating cash flow ($6.87 billion). That leaves us with $4.43 billion in free cash flow, which the company can save for future expenditures or distribute to shareholders.
Taking McDonald's sales of $25.5 billion over the same period, we can figure that the company has a cash king margin of about 17% -- a nice high number. In other words, for every dollar of sales, McDonald's produces $0.17 in free cash.
Ideally, we'd like to see the cash king margin top 10%. The best blue chips can notch numbers greater than 20%, making them true cash dynamos. But some businesses, including many types of retailing, just can't sustain such margins.
We're also looking for companies that can consistently increase their margins over time, which indicates that their competitive position is improving. Erratic swings in margins could signal a deteriorating business, or perhaps some financial skullduggery; you'll have to dig deeper to discover the reason.
Four companies
Here are the cash king margins for Novartis and industry peers over a few periods.
|
Company
|
Cash King Margin (TTM)
|
1 Year Ago
|
3 Years Ago
|
5 Years Ago
|
| Novartis |
20.6% |
24.6% |
16.2% |
20.2% |
| Pfizer (NYSE: PFE ) |
28.5% |
13% |
28.8% |
32.7% |
| GlaxoSmithKline (Nasdaq: GSK ) |
17% |
21.9% |
21.5% |
12.5% |
| Merck (NYSE: MRK ) |
22.8% |
18.1% |
27.9% |
27.6% |
Source: S&P Capital IQ.
All of these companies meet our threshold for attractiveness, with Novartis and Merck offering more than double our desired 10% and Pfizer offering nearly triple. However, Novartis' margins have grown only slightly after five years, and Pfizer and Merck have seen declines in their margins over the same period. GlaxoSmithKline, on the other hand, has increased its margins by more than 4 percentage points.
Novartis is involved in both the development of new drugs and the production of generic drugs. The company's new Onbrez Breezhaler treatment was approved in Europe in mid-2010 and by the FDA in March 2011 for patients with obstructive pulmonary disease. While its generics division is likely to bring in lower margins, it hedges against the downside of plummeting sales that come with expiring patents.
The pharma space can be an interesting ground for dividend seekers. Glaxo's 4.8% dividend yield outperforms Pfizer's 4% yield, Novartis' 3.5%, and even Merck's 4.4%. Even blue chip Johnson & Johnson offers a lower yield, at 3.5%
The cash king margin can help you find highly profitable businesses, but it should be only the start of your search. The ratio does have its limits, especially for rapidly growing small businesses. Many such companies reinvest all of their cash flow into growing the business, leaving them little or no free cash -- but that doesn't necessarily make them poor investments. Conversely, the formula works better for slower-growing blue chips. You'll need to look closer to determine exactly how a company is using its cash.
Still, if you can cut through the earnings headlines to follow the cash instead, you might be on the path toward seriously great investments.
Want to read more about Novartis? Add it to My Watchlist, which will find all of our Foolish analysis on this stock.
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