Forest Laboratories's total free cash flow for the
months ended in Mar. 2014 was
€-96 Mil.
Its total free cash flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2014 was €58 Mil.
Forest Laboratories's Free Cash Flow per Share for the
months ended in Mar. 2014 was €-0.34.
Its free cash flow per share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2014 was €0.22.
During the past 3 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was -53.70% per year.
Please click Growth Rate Calculation Example (GuruFocus) to see how GuruFocus calculates Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT)'s revenue growth rate. You can apply the same method to get the Free Cash Flow Growth Rate using Free Cash Flow per Share data.
During the past 13 years, Forest Laboratories's highest 3-Year average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 197.20% per year. The lowest was -53.70% per year. And the median was 13.60% per year.
Forest Laboratories Free Cash Flow Historical Data
The historical data trend for Forest Laboratories's Free Cash Flow can be seen below:
* 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.
Free Cash Flow is considered one of the most important parameters to measure a company's earnings power by value investors because it is not subject to estimates of Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization (DDA). However, when we look at the Free Cash Flow, we should look from a long term perspective, because any year's Free Cash Flow can be drastically affected by the spending on Property, Plant, & Equipment (PPE) of the business in that year. Over the long term, Free Cash Flow should give pretty good picture on the real earnings power of the company.
Forest Laboratories's Free Cash Flow for the fiscal year that ended in Mar. 2014 is calculated as
Free Cash Flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2014 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was €58 Mil.
* 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.
Free Cash Flow is very close to Warren Buffett's definition of Owner's Earnings, except that in Warren Buffett's Owner's Earnings, the spending for Property, Plant, and Equipment is only for maintenance (replacement), while in the Free Cash Flow calculation, the cost of new Property, Plant, and Equipment due to business expansion is also deducted. There, Free Cash Flow is more conservative than Owner's Earnings.
In Don Yacktman's calculation of forward rate of return, he uses Free Cash Flow for the calculation. Yacktman explained the forward rate of return concept in detail in his interview with GuruFocus. Yacktman defines forward rate of return as the normalized free cash flow yield plus real growth plus inflation.
This is what Yacktman said in his March 2012 interview - when the S&P 500 was at 1400:
If the business is stable, this calculation is fairly straightforward. For instance, on the S&P 500 we would normalize earnings. We would then calculate what percentage of those earnings are not reinvested in the underlying businesses and are therefore free. Historically, for the S&P 500, this has been just under 50% of earnings. Currently, we expect the S&P to earn about 70 on a normalized basis, a number which is far below reported earnings due to our adjusting for record high profit margins. $70 X ½ / 1400 gives you a normalized free cash flow yield of approximately 2.5%.
The historical real growth rate of the S&P 500 (companies) is about 1.5%. Assuming an inflation rate of 2.5%, the forward rate of return on an investment in the S&P 500 is about 6.5% today (2.5% free cash flow yield plus 1.5% real growth plus 2.5% inflation).
For the growth part of the Forward Rate of Return calculation, GuruFocus uses the 5-year average growth rate of EBITDA per share as the growth rate, and the growth rate is always capped at 20%. For the Free Cash Flow we use per share data averaged over seven years. The reason we use seven years is because research shows that seven years is the length of the typical business cycle.
* 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.
Be Aware
Free Cash Flow within a report period can be affected by management's decisions of capital spending. Therefore, it is important to look at long term when it comes to Free Cash Flow.
Forest Laboratories Free Cash Flow Related Terms
Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Forest Laboratories's Free Cash Flow provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.
Forest Laboratories (FRA:FQX) Business Description
Forest Laboratories, Inc. is a Delaware corporation organized in 1956. The Company develops, manufactures and sells branded forms of ethical drug products most of which require a physician's prescription. The Company's most important United States products are marketed directly, or 'detailed,' to physicians by its salesforces. It emphasizes detailing to physicians of those branded ethical drugs which have the most potential for growth and benefit to patients. The Company also develops and introduces new products, including products developed in collaboration with licensing partners. The Company's products include those developed by it and those acquired from other pharmaceutical companies and integrated into its marketing and distribution systems. It actively promotes in the United States those branded products which have the most potential for growth and patient benefit, and which enable its salesforces to concentrate on groups of physicians who are high prescribers of its products. Such products include: Lexapro, its SSRI for the treatment of major depression in adults and adolescents and GAD in adults; Namenda, its NMDA antagonist for the treatment of moderate and severe Alzheimer's disease; Bystolic, its beta-blocker for the treatment of hypertension; and Savella, its newest product, an SNRI for the management of fibromyalgia. The Company's United Kingdom and Ireland subsidiaries sell both ethical products and over-the-counter preparations. Their most important products include Sudocrem, a topical preparation for the treatment of diaper rash; Colomycin, an antibiotic used in the treatment of cystic fibrosis; Infacol, used to treat infant colic; and Exorex, used in the treatment of eczema and psoriasis. The pharmaceutical industry is subject to comprehensive government regulation which substantially increases the difficulty and cost incurred in obtaining the approval to market newly proposed drug products and maintaining the approval to market existing drugs.
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