Many financial analysts and investors believe that measures of cash flow are extremely useful when analyzing the financial health and prospects of a company. In recent years, a measure called “free cash flow” has become widely used. However, many different definitions and ways to calculate...

According to recent surveys, most companies use discounted-cash-flow (DCF) methods to evaluate capital budgeting decisions. DCF methods typically assume that a project's initial cash outlay (ICO) is known with certainty. However, many types of initial outlays have substantial uncertainty,...