Abstract: It is widely known that if the leverage is constant over time, then the after-tax Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is constant over time. In other words, it is inappropriate to use a constant after-tax WACC to discount the free cash flow (FCF) if the leverage changes over time....

A large percentage of companies use the discounted cash flow (DCF) approach as the primary technique of investment/project evaluation and capital budgeting process. This approach requires forecasting detailed cash flow of the project under evaluation and then discounting the resulting cash flow...

In this teaching note, we present an integrated, consistent market-based framework for valuing finite cash flows. We derive the relevant cash flows from integrated financial statements, and based on Modigliani and Miller's (M & M) theories, we estimate the appropriate cost of capital and value...

Although perpetuities are somewhat artificial in the sense that in practice they do not exist, they are relevant because no matter how detailed and complex a forecasted financial plan for a firm or project could be terminal value usually is calculated as perpetuity. This terminal value might be...

In this short teaching note I explain why we subtract the change in working capital from the proper item (Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) or Net income) in the Income Statement. I show in detail how departing from the sales revenues and the cost of goods sold we have to subtract the...

Abstract: In the standard Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) applied to the free cash flow (FCF), we assume that the cost of debt is the market, unsubsidized rate. With debt at the market rate and perfect capital markets, debt only creates value in the presence of taxes through the tax...

Abstract: Practitioners and teachers very easily break some consistency rules when doing or teaching valuation of assets. In this short and simple note we present a practical guide to call the attention upon the most frequent broken consistency rules. They have to do firstly with the consistency...

Usually a great deal of effort is devoted in typical financial textbooks to the mechanics of the calculations of time value of money equivalencies: payments, future values, present values, etc. This is necessary. However little or no effort is devoted to how to arrive at the figures required to...

We show that project evaluation should be based on free cash flows at nominal prices. We present a case where the results from the constant price method are biased upwards and there is a risk to accept bad projects. It is a widespread practice to evaluate projects at constant prices. With an...

It is a well known problem the interactions between the market value of cash flows and the discount rate (usually the weighted average cost of capital, WACC) to calculate that value. This is mentioned in almost all textbooks in corporate finance. However, the solution adopted by most authors is...