Helping Investors Understand Cash Flow

In this podcast, Motley Fool senior analyst John Rotonti discusses:

• How net income becomes free cash flow.
• The choices companies can make with free cash flow (and why investors should care).
• Margins that can indicate the health of public companies.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our quick-start guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on April 9, 2022.

John Rotonti: The intrinsic value of a business is all of the future free cash flows that business will generate from now until eternity. This counted back to present value because of the time value. Free cash flow is what drives business growth. Free cash flow is what drives intrinsic value growth and therefore free cash flow is what drives compounding, which is what we're all looking for in our investments. 

Chris Hill: I'm Chris Hill and that was Motley Fool Senior Analyst John Rotonti. On last Saturday's show, John walked through two of the most important financial statements that public companies release to shareholders, the income statement and the balance sheet. This week, John ties it all together with a discussion on the cash flow statement and the delicious information it tells investors.

John Rotonti: Remember how I just said net income is the bottom line of the cash flow statement? Well, guess what? Net income, the same exact number that's on that income statement, then becomes the top line of the cash flow statement. This is critical to understand. This is critical. The bottom line of the income statement, net income, becomes the top line of the cash flow statement. Now the cash flow statement has three primary sections: cash flow generated from operations, cash flows from investing and cash flows from financing. Right now, we're going to focus on the cash flows from operation section. It's at the top of the cash flow statement. What happens in this top section of the cash flow statement in this cash flow from operations section of the cash flow statement is we're going to make several adjustments or what are called reconciliations to convert net income into cash flow from operations.

All of these adjustments that we're about to go through line-by-line because they're important that you understand them, all of them are either adding or subtracting something from net income. That is why net income becomes the top line of the cash flow statement. All the cash flow from operations section of the cash flow statement is a reconciliation of converting net income into cash flow from operations. What are these adjustments that we need to make? There are several. We're going to go through a few of the most common. The first one is you add back depreciation and amortization because these are non-cash charges that show up on the income statement but they are non-cash. What does that mean? It means they subtract it from net income. They were expenses on the income statement, they decreased net income but they are non-cash. No cash actually leaves the door. Chipotle doesn't actually pay any cash to anyone. Because it is a non-cash expense, it is added back on the cash flow statement. This first reconciliation, this first adjustment, we add back depreciation and amortization because no cash leaves the door.

The next one, we add back stock-based compensation. According to accounting rules, you add back stock-based compensation because this is paid in shares, not cash. No cash leaves the door. Chipotle doesn't have to pay cash to any employee when it's giving out stock-based comp. Because no cash leaves the door, you add it back on the cash flow statement. Here's another one, you subtract a deferred tax asset. Why? Because a deferred tax asset is a tax the company pays out now, pays out today, but will not owe later down the road. Since the cash is paid out now, cash leaves the door. It is subtracted on the cash flow statement. There's also the opposite, you add back deferred tax liability. This is also called deferred income taxes. You add back deferred tax liabilities. These are taxes the company decides not to pay out today, but will instead payout at a later date. Since no cash is leaving the door today, that is added back on the cash flow statement. Then there's a variety of working capital adjustments you make. We subtract an increase in accounts receivable. Why do you subtract an increase in accounts receivable? Because accounts receivable, remember, is from the balance sheet, we went over this. Accounts receivable is payment owed to a company that it has not yet received in cash. Since the company has not yet received the cash, remember accounts receivables are going up. This is an increase in accounts receivable, so the amount of cash the company has not yet received is increasing.

Since the company has not received that cash, no cash has entered the door today, therefore, it is subtracted on the cash flow statement. There's the opposite, you add back a decrease in accounts receivable. This means the company is receiving cash from customers that purchased on credit. It's receiving cash. Cash is entering the door, so you add it back. You subtract an increase in inventory. Why? Because when you buy inventory, you are spending money on that inventory, you are spending cash. Inventory is a use of cash. Cash is leaving the door. When inventory goes up, you subtract that on the cash flow statement. You also add back a decrease in inventory. If inventories go down, that is not a use of cash. That is a cash inflow. Cash is entering the company, so you add back a decrease in inventory. There are lots of these, Fools. You add back an increase in accounts payable. This's an important one. When companies want to increase their cash flow, they try to extend the terms that they have until they need to pay their vendors.

Accounts payable, remember, is money the company owes to its vendors but it's not paid yet. An increase in accounts payable means the company owes its suppliers even more but no cash has left the door. If accounts payable increases, the company is taking longer to pay its suppliers. No cash is leaving the business, so you add that back on the cash flow statement. But what happens if accounts payables decrease? If accounts payables decrease, this means cash is leaving the business because the company, Chipotle, is paying off what it owes. You subtract a decrease in accounts payables. The last one I'll go through is you add back deferred revenue. Deferred revenue is cash collected upfront for a product or service that has not yet been delivered to the customer like a yearly newspaper subscription, for example, because the company collects the cash today, that is a cash inflow, so it is added back on the cash flow statement. Once you do all those pluses and minuses, Fools, you get a very important number called cash flow from operations. We have just converted net income into cash flow from operations. The very next line down on the cash flow statement is capital expenditures, also called property, plant, and equipment. How much money the company is investing in any given year in its property, plant, and equipment.

The most common definition of free cash flow, the most common formula used whether by Wall Street analysts or by companies themselves when they're telling you, we generated X amount of free cash flow, maybe 98% of public companies that say they generated X amount of free cash flow, they are using this formula I am giving you now. Cash flow from operations, which comes right off the cash flow statement, minus capital expenditures, which comes right off the cash flow statement. They are right next to each other for that very reason, Fools. Cash flow from operations, the very next line down on the cash flow statement is capital expenditures. You take cash flow from operations, you subtract that very next line down, capital expenditures, and you get free cash flow. That is the most common definition of free cash flow. If you want to get a little more robust, if you have an acquisitive company, Chipotle is not acquisitive. Chipotle doesn't make acquisitions. Let's say it did. Let's say it made acquisitions every single year. In that case, you would have to consider the amount it spends on acquisitions as a capital expenditure because it's spending that money on acquisitions year in and year out. Those acquisitions have become part of its growth strategy, of its investment strategy. If you want to get more robust, more thorough in your definition of free cash flow, you would take cash flow from operations, you would subtract capital expenditures, and then you would subtract cash spent on acquisitions. Fools, once again, these three line items come directly off of the cash flow statement. You go to a company's cash flow statement you will see a line item called cash flow from operations. You go to a company's cash-flow statement you will see a line item called capital expenditures. You go to a company's cash flow statement you will see a line item called cash acquisitions. Now we have this really robust definition of free cash flow now, or this more robust definition of free cash flow. Cash flow from operations minus capital expenditures minus acquisitions, and you get free cash flow.

Free cash flow is the all-important number. That is what we're ultimately after as investors. Why? Because the intrinsic value of a business, the fundamental value of a business is the present value of its future free cash flow. Said another way, the intrinsic value of a business is all of the future free cash flows that business will generate from now until eternity, discounted back to present value because of the time value. Free cash flow is what drives business growth. Free cash flow is what drives intrinsic value growth, and therefore, free cash flow is what drives compounding, which is what we're all looking for in our investments. The definition of free cash flow is the amount of money left over, the amount of excess cash left over, excess, unencumbered, that's why it's free, it's unencumbered. The amount of excess unencumbered cash flow left over after a company has invested to both maintain its assets, remember back to the balance sheet now, to both maintain its assets and to grow its assets. A company has to both spend, let's say it has a factory, that's an asset. Well, that factory is going to rust and that factory is going to break down, so it's going to have to maintain that factory, that's maintenance, capital expenditures. That company is also going to have to build new factories if it wants to grow, that's growth capital expenditures. Then if the company is growing through acquisitions, that's another form of growth investment or growth capital expenditures, the acquisitions. Free cash flow is the amount of excess, unencumbered cash flow left over after a business has invested to maintain and grow its assets. This is also the amount of cash flow that is available to the enterprise, which means it's the amount of cash flow available to both debt and equity holders.

We have just calculated the all-important number of free cash flow. We've just said, free cash flow is the amount of unencumbered excess cash flow that is available to debt and equity holders. There are only, I think four things I will tell you for sure after I say them out of my head. But there are only four things a company can do with its free cash flow. That's it. The most creative person in the world could not come up with another use of free cash flow. Some people say, well, you can use your free cash flow to invest in research and development. Incorrect. You've already invested in research and development through the income statement to get net income, and then remember net income, the bottom line of the income statement, net income, became the top line of the cash flow statement, and then we made all of these adjustments to net income to get cash flow from operations. Research and development has already been accounted for. Remember the definition of free cash flow. When you hear other people tell you that you can invest in all these growth stuff with free cash flow, you will know that they are incorrect.

Definition of free cash flow is the amount of excess capital left over after the company has invested in growth. After the company has invested in R&D. After the company has invested in capital expenditures. After the company has invested in acquisitions. All of those growth investments have already been made. This is the excess free cash flow. The only four things a company can do with their free cash flow is, pay a dividend, that's rule No. 1. Guess what Fools, that is a line item on the cash flow statement. That's why the cash flow statement gives you so much beautiful, delicious information. All of these are line items. It tells you exactly, how the company is generating its cash flow, that's cash flow of more operations, how the company is investing, that's a capital expenditures and the cash acquisitions. All of these are line items. Boom, you pull them right off the cash flow statement one after the other. Then it tells you what the company is doing with its free cash flow. The first line item you can pull right off the cash flow statement is dividends. That's the first thing a company could do with its free cash flow, pay a dividend to shareholders. That's a way to return cash to shareholders that comes out of free cash flow. The second thing a company can do with its free cash flow, repurchase stock or buy back stock. That is also a line item right on the cash flow statement.

The third thing a company can do with its free cash flow is repay debt, which is a line item on the cash flow statement. By the way, that's also a way to return cash to shareholders, because remember from our income statement analysis we went through earlier, debt holders have primary claim on a company's cash flows. Well if you pay down all the debt, there is no debt holders left to have a primary claim. Whether you're paying a dividend, whether you're buying back stock, as long as you're buying it back at attractive prices, or whether you're repaying debt, you're returning capital to shareholders with that free cash flow. Those are the three things you could do with free cash flow or three of the things we're going to get through another one. Pay a dividend, No. 1. Buy back stock, No. 2. Pay down debt, No. 3. If you were not subtracting acquisitions from your definition of free cash flow, then acquisitions would be a fourth thing a company could do with its free cash flow. But we subtracted acquisitions, so we're not going to include it, but that would be a fourth thing. Then the fifth thing and the final thing is, let it build up on the balance sheet. That's a fifth and final thing a company can do with a free cash flow, let it buildup on the balance sheet.

When you have companies that generate all of this excess unencumbered free cash flow, like Apple, like Alphabet, you get these massive cash balances on the balance sheet. I'm almost done Fools. We went through three statements now. We went through the balance sheet, we went through the income statement, we went through the cash flow statement. The last thing I want to do is talk about really quickly, some of the connections between these statements. For example, net income, the bottom line of the income statement. I already talked about how it connects to the cash flow statement, because the bottom line of the income statement becomes a top line of the cash flow statement, net income becomes a top line of the cash flow statement. With net income, according to accounting principles, a company can either pay a dividend or retain all of that net income to invest in future growth. Whatever the company does not pay out as a dividend, shows up on the balance sheet as retained earnings. That's one way how net income connects to the balance sheet.

Now we have connected net income to both the cash flow statement and the balance sheet. Most companies that pay a dividend don't pay out 100% of their net income as a dividend, they'll pay out something like 30 or 40 or 50% of their net income as a dividend and then they will retain the rest. Remember, that shows up as retained earnings on the balance sheet. Retained earnings on the balance sheet increases shareholders' equity. Would we say shareholders equity was, book value. When net income grows, if you retain your earnings, your shareholders' equity or your book value grows. We already said how the cash generated on the cash flow statement relates to the balance sheet, because if you generate all this excess cash and you don't pay it all as dividend, you don't use all of it to buy back stock and you don't have any debt to pay down, then it just builds up as cash on the balance sheet. That's how the cash flow statement relates to the balance sheet. You can also create various formulas and ratios by mixing and matching these three financial statements. For example, net income, off of the income statement, divided by shareholders equity, off of the balance sheet, equals return on equity. A measure of profitability and efficiency.

Here's another one, net income, off of the income statement, divided by total assets, off of the balance sheet, equals return on assets. Another measure of profitability and efficiency. Last thing, margins. I told you how to calculate gross margins. Back to the income statement here Fools, that gross margin was gross profit divided by sales. I also told you anytime you want to calculate a margin, you just divide the absolute dollar amount by sales, but let's go through them really quickly. Gross profit margin we know, gross profit dollars divided by sales. What about EBIT margin? That would just be, EBIT dollars divided by sales. What about net income margin? That would just be, net income dollars divided by sales. Well, you can also, Fools, calculate a free cash flow margin. That would just be the free cash flow that we calculated from the cash flow statement divided by sales, which is on the income statement. All of these three primary financial statements connect to each other. They all drive each other. That's the beauty of accounting, which is the language of business and investing. This my friends is Motley Fool Financial Statement Analysis 101. [MUSIC] I'm John Rotonti. Thank you so much for tuning in. Fool on. [MUSIC]

Chris Hill: As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.