GURUFOCUS.COM » STOCK LIST » Industrials » Business Services » Dolby Laboratories Inc (NYSE:DLB) » Definitions » Free Cash Flow per Share

Dolby Laboratories (Dolby Laboratories) Free Cash Flow per Share

: $2.97 (TTM As of Dec. 2023)
View and export this data going back to 2005. Start your Free Trial

Dolby Laboratories's Free Cash Flow per Share for the three months ended in Dec. 2023 was $0.02. Its Free Cash Flow per Share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Dec. 2023 was $2.97.

During the past 12 months, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate of Dolby Laboratories was -1.20% per year. During the past 3 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 8.90% per year. During the past 5 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 7.70% per year. During the past 10 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 6.40% 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 FCF Growth Rate using Free Cash Flow per Share data.

The historical rank and industry rank for Dolby Laboratories's Free Cash Flow per Share or its related term are showing as below:

DLB' s 3-Year FCF Growth Rate Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: -18.9   Med: 11   Max: 51.9
Current: 8.9

During the past 13 years, Dolby Laboratories's highest 3-Year average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 51.90% per year. The lowest was -18.90% per year. And the median was 11.00% per year.

DLB's 3-Year FCF Growth Rate is ranked better than
56.42% of 716 companies
in the Business Services industry
Industry Median: 3.15 vs DLB: 8.90

Dolby Laboratories Free Cash Flow per Share Historical Data

The historical data trend for Dolby Laboratories'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.

* Premium members only.

Dolby Laboratories Annual Data
Trend Sep14 Sep15 Sep16 Sep17 Sep18 Sep19 Sep20 Sep21 Sep22 Sep23
Free Cash Flow per Share
Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 2.05 2.67 3.76 2.54 3.45

Dolby Laboratories Quarterly Data
Mar19 Jun19 Sep19 Dec19 Mar20 Jun20 Sep20 Dec20 Mar21 Jun21 Sep21 Dec21 Mar22 Jun22 Sep22 Dec22 Mar23 Jun23 Sep23 Dec23
Free Cash Flow per Share Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 0.51 1.00 1.17 0.78 0.02

Competitive Comparison

For the Specialty Business Services subindustry, Dolby Laboratories'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.


Dolby Laboratories Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow Distribution

For the Business Services industry and Industrials sector, Dolby Laboratories's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Dolby Laboratories's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow falls into.



Dolby Laboratories 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.

Dolby Laboratories's Free Cash Flow Per Share for the fiscal year that ended in Sep. 2023 is calculated as

Free Cash Flow Per Share(A: Sep. 2023 )
=(Cash Flow from Operations+Capital Expenditure)/Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average)
=(367.081+-30.339)/97.733
=336.742/97.733
=3.45

Dolby Laboratories's Free Cash Flow Per Share for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 is calculated as

Free Cash Flow Per Share(Q: Dec. 2023 )
=(Cash Flow from Operations+Capital Expenditure)/Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average)
=(8.409+-6.099)/97.439
=2.31/97.439
=0.02

Free Cash Flow per Share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Dec. 2023 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was $2.97

* 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.


Dolby Laboratories  (NYSE:DLB) 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.

Therefore, as of Sep23, Dolby Laboratories's Forward Rate of Return (Yacktman) % is

Forward Rate of Return (Yacktman) % (Sep23)=Normalized Free Cash Flow/Price+5-Year EBITDA Growth Rate
=2.76971429/86.18+0.0325
=6.46 %

* 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.


Dolby Laboratories Free Cash Flow per Share Related Terms

Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Dolby Laboratories's Free Cash Flow per Share provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.


Dolby Laboratories (Dolby Laboratories) Business Description

Traded in Other Exchanges
Address
1275 Market Street, San Francisco, CA, USA, 94103-1410
Dolby Laboratories Inc develops audio and surround sound for cinema, broadcast, home audio systems, in-car entertainment systems, DVD players, games, televisions, and personal computers. The company generates three fourths of its revenue from licensing its technology to consumer electronics manufacturers around the world. The rest of revenue comes from equipment sales to professional producers and audio engineering services.
Executives
Kevin J Yeaman officer: VP, Chief Financial Officer C/O DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Mark Andrew Sherman officer: EVP, GEN. COUN. & SECRTY DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
John D Couling officer: SVP, Entertainment C/O DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Todd Pendleton officer: SVP, Chief Marketing Officer 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Emily Rollins director C/O DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Anjali Sud director C/O VIMEO INC., 555 WEST 18TH STREET, NEW YORK NY 10011
Simon Segars director C/O DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Avadis Tevanian director DOLBY LABORATORIES INC, 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Peter C Gotcher director
Ryan Nicholson officer: VP, Corporate Controller C/O DOLBY LABORATORIES INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Shriram Revankar officer: SVP, Advanced Technology Group C/O DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Tony A Prophet director 9 BERNICE STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Robert J Park officer: SVP & Chief Financial Officer C/O DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Steven E Forshay officer: Sr. Vice President, Research 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
Lewis Chew officer: EVP, Chief Financial Officer DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC., 1275 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103