Free Cash Flow

For years, GAAP earnings per share was the financial metric of choice for virtually all professional equity investors. However, increasing problems with this approach, combined with a growing appreciation of investment economics, have caused many investors to turn to Free Cash Flow as their primary financial metric. Even with the growing popularity of Free Cash Flow, the lack of detailed information in this field has made it difficult for many investors to integrate Free Cash Flow into their daily investment discipline. That's why George Christy--a financial executive and corporate banker with over thirty years of experience--has created Free Cash Flow: Seeing Through the Accounting Fog Machine to Find Great Stocks. Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this reliable resource shows you how analyzing a company's financial performance can put you in a better position to pick winning stocks and improve the overall returns of your portfolio. Throughout the book, Christy explains the differences between Free Cash Flow and GAAP earnings, and describes the advantages of Free Cash Flow. He also takes you step by step through the Free Cash Flow Statement(R)--which focuses on the primary drivers of investor return: revenues, cash operating margin, and use of capital--and illustrates how each of the four deployments of Free Cash Flow can enhance or diminish shareholder return. In order to put the ideas outlined in perspective, Christy applies the conceptual building blocks of Free Cash Flow and investor return to an actual company--McDonald's--and goes line by line through the downloadable Free Cash Flow Worksheet(R) that integrates the primary components of share value into an investor return model. Five other restaurant companies are compared to McDonald's, and each other, using both Free Cash Flow and GAAP metrics. Rounding out this detailed discussion of Free Cash Flow, Christy shows you how to assess a CEO's commitment to investor return by analyzing three key sources, and explains how to use the Free Cash Flow Worksheet in your stock search, from finding candidates with screeners to making buy, hold, or sell decisions. Cash is the essence of shareholder value, and with Free Cash Flow as your guide, you'll quickly learn how to use this important metric to find, and profit from, great stocks. The Free Cash Flow Statement(R) and the Free Cash Flow Worksheet(R) used in this book and found on its companion Web site (www.wiley.com/go/christy) were specifically developed by the author for this book. Be sure to see the detailed Table of Contents on page IX. Free Cash Flow goes where no other investment book has gone before.