United Utilities Group (United Utilities Group) Earnings Power Value (EPV) : $-19.45 (As of Mar23)

United Utilities Group Earnings Power Value (EPV) Chart

United Utilities Group Annual Data
	Trend	Mar14	Mar15	Mar16	Mar17	Mar18	Mar19	Mar20	Mar21	Mar22	Mar23
Earnings Power Value (EPV)		Get a 7-Day Free Trial					-12.85	-12.36	-14.21	-13.53	-13.75

United Utilities Group Semi-Annual Data
	Mar14	Sep14	Mar15	Sep15	Mar16	Sep16	Mar17	Sep17	Mar18	Sep18	Mar19	Sep19	Mar20	Sep20	Mar21	Sep21	Mar22	Sep22	Mar23	Sep23
Earnings Power Value (EPV)	Get a 7-Day Free Trial															-	-13.53	-	-13.75	-

Competitive Comparison of United Utilities Group's Earnings Power Value (EPV)

For the Utilities - Regulated Water subindustry, United Utilities Group's Earnings Power Value (EPV), along with its competitors' market caps and Earnings Power Value (EPV) data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.

United Utilities Group's Earnings Power Value (EPV) Distribution in the Utilities - Regulated Industry

For the Utilities - Regulated industry and Utilities sector, United Utilities Group's Earnings Power Value (EPV) distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where United Utilities Group's Earnings Power Value (EPV) falls into.

United Utilities Group Earnings Power Value (EPV) Calculation

Earnings Power Value also known as just Earnings Power is a valuation technique popularised by Bruce Greenwald, an authority on value investing at Columbia University. It is arguably a better way to analyze stocks than Discounted Cash Flow analysis that relies on highly speculative growth assumptions many years into the future.

The basic concept of EPV is that one should value a stock based on the current free cash flow of a company and not on future projections which may, or may not, come true. This valuation tool excludes the potential growth that a company may have so that needs to be looked at separately. Since future growth is excluded from the analysis, only the maintenance capital expenditures are subtracted from after-tax EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) and growth capex is ignored.

United Utilities Group's "Earning Power" Calculation:

1. Start with "Earnings" not including accounting adjustments (one-time charges not excluded unless policy has changed). "Earnings" are "Operating Income.

2. Look at average margins over a business/Industry cycle: Average Operating Margin = 32.36%

To normalize margins and eliminate the effects on profitability of valuing the firm at different points in the business cycle, it is usually best to take a long-term average of operating margins. Ideally this would be as long as 10 years and include at least one economic downturn. However, since most of companies do not have as long as 10-year history, here GuruFocus uses the latest 5 years data to do the calculation. To smooth out unusual years but reflect recent developments, we take an average of the 5 year margin.

3. Multiply average margins by sustainable revenues and then adjust for maintenance SGA. This yields "normalized" EBIT:

To be conservative, GuruFocus uses an average of the 5 year revenues as the sustainable revenue.
EPV analysis recognises that part of SG&A expenditure is made to maintain and replace the existing assets, while part is made to grow sales. Since EPV is only interested in what it costs a going concern to maintain its existing asset base, it adds back a percentage of SG&A (between 15% and 50% - this is a matter of judgment and industry knowledge) to make up for the fact that some of this expenditure went to fund growth and shouldn't be accounted for. To start off, we assume 25% for the sake of prudence.
Sustainable Revenue = $2,375 Mil, Average Operating Margin = 32.36%, Average Adjusted SGA = 4,
therefore "Normalized" EBIT = Sustainable Revenue * Average Operating Margin + Average Adjusted SGA = 2,375 * 32.36% +4 = $772.560765008 Mil.

4. Multiply by one minus Average Tax Rate (NOPAT):

Same as average operating margin calculation, GuruFocus takes an average of the 5 years tax rates.
Average Tax Rate = 46.43%, and "Normalized" EBIT = $772.560765008 Mil,
therefore After-tax "Normalized" EBIT = "Normalized" EBIT * ( 1 - Average Tax Rate ) = 772.560765008 * ( 1 - 46.43% ) = $413.87625303009 Mil.

5. Add back Excess Depreciation (after tax at 1/2 average tax rate). This yields "normalized" Earnings:

Excess Depreciation = Average DDA * % of Excess Depreciation (after tax at 1/2 average tax rate) = 553 * 0.5 * 46.43% = $128.43632994 Mil.
"Normalized" Earnings = After-tax "Normalized" EBIT + Excess Depreciation = 413.87625303009 + 128.43632994 = $542.31258297009 Mil.

6. Adjusted for Maintenance Capital Expenditure:

First, calculate the revenue change regarding to the previous year. If the revenue decreased from the previous year, then the Maintenance Capital Expenditure = Capital Expenditure (positive).
Second, if the revenue increased from the previous year, then calculate the percentage of Net PPE as of corresponding Revenue.
Third, calculate Capital Expenditure (positive) - percentage of Net PPE as of corresponding Revenue * revenue increase.
If [Capital Expenditure (positive) - percentage of Net PPE as of corresponding Revenue * revenue increase] was negative, then the Maintenance Capital Expenditure = Capital Expenditure (positive).
If [Capital Expenditure (positive) - percentage of Net PPE as of corresponding Revenue * revenue increase] was positive, then the Maintenance Capital Expenditure = Capital Expenditure (positive) - percentage of Net PPE as of corresponding Revenue * revenue increase.
Fourth, GuruFocus uses an average of the 5 year maintenance capital expenditures as maintenance CAPEX.
United Utilities Group's Average Maintenance CAPEX = $856 Mil *.
* GuruFocus does not store EPV value into our database if Average Maintenance CAPEX is 0.

7. Investors require a return of "WACC" for the risk they are taking: WACC = 9%

8. United Utilities Group's current cash and cash equivalent = $413 Mil.
United Utilities Group's current interest bearing debt = Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation + Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation = 10,023 + 214 = $10237.136 Mil.
United Utilities Group's current Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average) = 684 Mil.

United Utilities Group's Earnings Power Value (EPV) for Mar23 is calculated as:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

* GuruFocus does not store EPV value into our database if Average Maintenance CAPEX is 0.

United Utilities Group  (OTCPK:UUGWF) Earnings Power Value (EPV) Explanation

Assumption: Current profitability is sustainable.

Earnings power value (EPV) uses a very basic equation which assumes no growth, although it does rely on an assumption about the cost of capital as well as the fact that current earnings are sustainable. It also involves several adjustments to clean up the underlying Earnings figures.

Be Aware

Though using today's earnings in calculating Earnings Power Value, GuruFocus is normalizing these earnings to the business cycle. This eliminates the effects on profitability of valuing the firm at different points in the business cycle. This means that we are considering the average earnings over 5 years.

United Utilities Group Earnings Power Value (EPV) Related Terms

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United Utilities Group (United Utilities Group) Business Description