Are you are a growth investor or a value investor? The investment profession does its darnedest to fit fund managers into one camp or the other, and many investors do likewise when determining whether a company is a growth or value play. However, as Warren Buffett counsels, growth and value are joined at the hip. To invest successfully, a Fool must understand both concepts.
In the May issue of Smart Money magazine, James Stewart tries to define the two types of investing: Value investors look for stocks with undervalued pasts, while growth investors seek stocks with undervalued futures. But both aspects are important to consider when calculating free cash flow yield.
The benefits of free cash flow yield
Free cash flow yield is simply the inverse of the price-to-free cash flow ratio (P/FCF). When stated as a percentage, it offers useful insight into how much free cash flow a stock is yielding. A Foolish investor could compare a stock's free cash flow yield to the yield on the 10-year Treasury, for example, to see whether the stock offers sufficient compensation for its additional risk.
Free cash flow yield is a useful tool to gauge companies in more mature industries, such as Anheuser-Busch
But what about a smaller, faster-growing company operating in a more dynamic industry? In these cases, the market pie may be growing, and a fast-moving firm, like Apollo Group
Another way?
There are two handy ways to better evaluate free cash flow for a growing company. The first one involves breaking down a company's capital expenditures, separating the money spent to grow the business from the funds used to maintain it. Whitney Tilson wrote eloquently about maintenance versus growth capex in an earlier Fool article.
The second, lesser-known technique is called free cash flow total return. I first heard the term in a recent interview with Bill Miller, the market-thumping head of Legg Mason's Value Trust, where he defined it as "free cash flow yield, plus the anticipated growth in free cash flow yield."
Putting it into practice
Here's how it works. In my article last week on Bed Bath & Beyond
Another example: In recent interviews, Bill Miller estimated that Dell
Clearly, it's a lot simpler to calculate free cash flow yield than free cash flow growth. The latter requires estimates of firm growth, profitability, industry dynamics, competitors' ability to narrow an economic moat over time -- the sort of things you usually need a crystal ball for. Free cash flow total return handily provides a useful framework for making these necessary decisions when you're sizing up a stock. It also makes it a bit easier to find compelling companies trading at a sufficient margin of safety.
Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, and Dell are all Motley Fool Inside Value recommendations, while Dell and Bed Bath & Beyond are Motley Fool Stock Advisor selections.
Fool contributor Ryan Fuhrmann is long shares of BBBY and PETM. Feel free to email him with feedback or your own thoughts on free cash flow total return. The Fool's disclosure policy yields to no one.