Safeway (FRA:SWY) Free Cash Flow : €-694 Mil (TTM As of Sep. 2014)

View and export this data going back to . Start your Free Trial

What is Safeway Free Cash Flow?

Safeway's total free cash flow for the months ended in Sep. 2014 was €152 Mil. Its total free cash flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2014 was €-694 Mil.

Safeway's Free Cash Flow per Share for the months ended in Sep. 2014 was €0.66. Its free cash flow per share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2014 was €-3.19.

During the past 12 months, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate of Safeway was -216.50% per year. During the past 3 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was -9.60% per year. During the past 5 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was -12.60% per year. During the past 10 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 9.10% 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, Safeway's highest 3-Year average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 59.20% per year. The lowest was -25.10% per year. And the median was 3.90% per year.

Safeway Free Cash Flow Historical Data

The historical data trend for Safeway'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.

* Premium members only.

Safeway Free Cash Flow Chart

Safeway Annual Data

Trend

Dec04

Dec05

Dec06

Dec07

Dec08

Dec09

Dec10

Dec11

Dec12

Dec13

Free Cash Flow

Get a 7-Day Free Trial

1,164.90

765.22

705.96

570.36

347.99

Safeway Quarterly Data
	Dec09	Mar10	Jun10	Sep10	Dec10	Mar11	Jun11	Sep11	Dec11	Mar12	Jun12	Sep12	Dec12	Mar13	Jun13	Sep13	Dec13	Mar14	Jun14	Sep14
Free Cash Flow	Get a 7-Day Free Trial															118.78	423.55	-1,547.87	278.28	151.94

Safeway Free Cash Flow Calculation

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.

Safeway's Free Cash Flow for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2013 is calculated as

Free Cash Flow (A: Dec. 2013 )	=	Cash Flow from Operations	+	Capital Expenditure
	=	908.193	+	-560.202
	=	348

Safeway's Free Cash Flow for the quarter that ended in Sep. 2014 is calculated as

Free Cash Flow (Q: Sep. 2014 )	=	Cash Flow from Operations	+	Capital Expenditure
	=	284.87	+	-132.929
	=	152

Free Cash Flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2014 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was €-694 Mil.

Safeway (FRA:SWY) Free Cash Flow 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 Sep14, Safeway's Forward Rate of Return (Yacktman) % is

Forward Rate of Return (Yacktman) % (Sep14)	=	Normalized Free Cash Flow	/	Price	+	5-Year EBITDA Growth Rate
	=	1.18647619	/	26.873	+	0.2
	=	24.42 %

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.

Safeway Free Cash Flow Related Terms

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

Safeway (FRA:SWY) Business Description

Industry

GURUFOCUS.COM » STOCK LIST » Consumer Defensive » Retail - Defensive » Safeway Inc (FRA:SWY) » Definitions » Free Cash Flow

Comparable Companies

Traded in Other Exchanges

N/A

Address

Website

http://www.safeway.com

Safeway Inc was incorporated in the state of Delaware in July 1986 as SSI Holdings Corporation and, thereafter, its name was changed to Safeway Stores, Incorporated. In February 1990, the Company changed its name to Safeway Inc. The Company is a food and drug retailers in the United States, with 1,335 stores at year-end 2013. The Company's U.S. retail operations are located principally in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and the Mid-Atlantic region. The Company also has a network of distribution, manufacturing and food-processing facilities. The Company retail business operates into seven geographic retail operating segments; Denver, Eastern, Northern California, Phoenix, Northwest, Texas and Southern California. In all geographical retail operating segments, it operates one store format, where each store offers the same general mix of products with similar pricing to similar categories of customers. The Company does not operate supercenters, warehouse formats, combination clothing/grocery stores or discount stores. It owns and operates GroceryWorks.com Operating Company, LLC ("GroceryWorks"), an online grocery channel doing business under the names Safeway.com and Vons.com. Safeway's stores provide grocery items tailored to local preferences. Its stores offer a selection of food and general merchandise and feature a variety of specialty departments such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy. In addition, its stores offer Starbucks coffee shops and adjacent fuel centers. The Company also owns more than 300 other trademarks registered and/or pending in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and other jurisdictions, including trademarks for its product and services such as Safeway, Safeway SELECT, Rancher's Reserve, O Organics, Lucerne, Primo Taglio, Eating Right, mom to mom, waterfront BISTRO, Bright Green, Pantry Essentials, Open Nature, Refreshe, Snack Artist, Signature CafÃ©, Priority, just for U, My Simple Nutrition, Ingredients for Life, and other trademarks such as Pak'N Save Foods, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, and Carrs Quality Centers. Blackhawk, a subsidiary of Safeway, provides third-party gift cards, prepaid cards, telecom cards and sports and entertainment cards to a group of top North American retailers for sale to retail customers. The competitive factors that affect the Company's business are location, quality, price, condition of assets, marketing and promotional strategies, service and consumer loyalty to other brands and stores. It faces intense competition from traditional grocery retailers, non-traditional competitors such as supercenters and club stores, as well as from specialty supermarkets, drug stores, dollar stores, convenience stores and restaurants. The Company's compliance with the federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations have been adopted regulating the discharge of materials into the environment or otherwise related to the p

Safeway (FRA:SWY) Headlines

No Headlines