Gas Natural's Free Cash Flow per Share for the
three
months ended in Mar. 2017 was $0.85.
Its Free Cash Flow per Share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2017 was $0.54.
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 FCF Growth Rate using Free Cash Flow per Share data.
The historical rank and industry rank for Gas Natural's Free Cash Flow per Share or its related term are showing as below:
EGAS's 3-Year FCF Growth Rate is not ranked *
in the Utilities - Regulated industry.
Industry Median: 2.5 * Ranked among companies with meaningful 3-Year FCF Growth Rate only.
Gas Natural Free Cash Flow per Share Historical Data
The historical data trend for Gas Natural's Free Cash Flow per Share 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.
Competitive Comparison of Gas Natural's Free Cash Flow per Share
For the Utilities - Regulated Gas subindustry, Gas Natural's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow, along with its competitors' market caps and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow 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.
Gas Natural's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow Distribution in the Utilities - Regulated Industry
For the Utilities - Regulated industry and Utilities sector, Gas Natural's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow distribution charts can be found below:
* The bar in red indicates where Gas Natural's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow falls into.
Gas Natural Free Cash Flow per Share Calculation
Free Cashflow per Share is the amount of Free Cashflow per outstanding share of the company's stock.
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.
Note: GuruFocus does not calculate Free Cash Flow Per Share when Capital Expenditure is 0.
Gas Natural's Free Cash Flow Per Share for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2016 is calculated as
Free Cash Flow per Share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2017 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was $0.54
* 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.
Gas Natural (AMEX:EGAS) Free Cash Flow per Share Explanation
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.
Gas Natural Free Cash Flow per Share Related Terms
Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Gas Natural's Free Cash Flow per Share provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.
Gas Natural Inc was incorporated in Montana in 1909 and was reorganized as a holding company in 2009 as a means to facilitate future acquisitions and corporate level financing of natural gas utility and energy-related businesses. On July 9, 2010 the Company moved its state of incorporation to Ohio and changed its name from Energy, Inc. to Gas Natural Inc. The Company is a natural gas company, operating local distribution companies in six states and serving approximately 69,400 customers in total. It reports results in three business segments; Natural Gas, Marketing and Production, Corporate and Other. Natural Gas represents the majority of the Company's revenue, it annually distributes approximately 21 Bcf of natural gas to approximately 68,000 customers through regulated utilities operating in Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In the Marketing and Production segment, the Company markets approximately 3.6 Bcf of natural gas to commercial and industrial customers in Montana, Wyoming, Ohio, and Pennsylvania through EWR and GNR subsidiaries. Its EWR subsidiary also manages midstream supply and production assets for transportation customers and utilities. Corporate and Other encompasses the results of corporate acquisitions and other equity transactions and discontinued operations. Included in corporate and other are costs associated with business development and acquisitions, dividend income and recognized gains from the sale of marketable securities. In the Company's natural gas operations, it generally faces competition in the distribution and sales of natural gas from suppliers of other fuels, including coal, electricity, oil and propane. Its utility operations are subject to regulation by the KPSC, MPUC, MPSC, NCUC, PUCO, and the PaPUC. These authorities regulate many aspects of Company's distribution operations, including construction and maintenance of facilities, operations, safety, and regulatory rates charged to customers which control the rate of return it is allowed to realize.
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