Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, Edgewell Personal Care fair value estimate is US$47.04
Current share price of US$39.97 suggests Edgewell Personal Care is potentially trading close to its fair value
Our fair value estimate is 8.3% higher than Edgewell Personal Care's analyst price target of US$43.43
Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of Edgewell Personal Care Company (NYSE:EPC) by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.
We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model.
Is Edgewell Personal Care Fairly Valued?
We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.
A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:
10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
Levered FCF ($, Millions)
US$156.8m
US$185.4m
US$178.1m
US$174.5m
US$173.3m
US$173.6m
US$175.1m
US$177.5m
US$180.4m
US$183.7m
Growth Rate Estimate Source
Analyst x1
Analyst x1
Est @ -3.92%
Est @ -2.03%
Est @ -0.71%
Est @ 0.22%
Est @ 0.87%
Est @ 1.32%
Est @ 1.64%
Est @ 1.86%
Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 9.0%
US$144
US$156
US$138
US$124
US$113
US$104
US$96.0
US$89.2
US$83.2
US$77.8
("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St) Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$1.1b
We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.4%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 9.0%.
Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$2.9b÷ ( 1 + 9.0%)10= US$1.2b
The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$2.3b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of US$40.0, the company appears about fair value at a 15% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.
Important Assumptions
Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Edgewell Personal Care as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 9.0%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.434. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.
SWOT Analysis for Edgewell Personal Care
Strength
Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.
Debt is well covered by earnings.
Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.
Dividend information for EPC.
Weakness
Earnings growth over the past year is below its 5-year average.
Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Personal Products market.
Opportunity
Annual earnings are forecast to grow for the next 3 years.
Good value based on P/E ratio and estimated fair value.
Threat
Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.
Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the American market.
Is EPC well equipped to handle threats?
Moving On:
Whilst important, the DCF calculation shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Edgewell Personal Care, we've compiled three further aspects you should consider:
Risks: To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Edgewell Personal Care .
Future Earnings: How does EPC's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart.
Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!
PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every American stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content?Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
关键见解
使用两阶段自由现金流净值,Edgewell Personal Care的公允价值估计为47.04美元
目前的股价为39.97美元,表明Edgewell Personal Care的交易价格可能接近其公允价值
我们的公允价值估计比Edgewell Personal Care的分析师目标股价43.43美元高8.3%
现在,贴现现金流的最重要输入是贴现率,当然还有实际现金流。如果你不同意这些结果,那就自己计算一下,试一试假设。DCF也没有考虑一个行业可能的周期性,也没有考虑公司未来的资本需求,因此它没有全面反映公司的潜在表现。鉴于我们将Edgewell Personal Care视为潜在股东,因此使用权益成本作为贴现率,而不是构成债务的资本成本(或加权平均资本成本,WACC)。在此计算中,我们使用了9.0%,这是基于1.434的杠杆测试版。Beta是衡量股票与整个市场相比波动性的指标。我们的测试版来自全球可比公司的行业平均贝塔值,设定在0.8到2.0之间,这是一个稳定的业务的合理范围。