SolarCity's total free cash flow for the
months ended in Sep. 2016 was
$-418.8 Mil.
Its total free cash flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2016 was $-2,532.4 Mil.
SolarCity's Free Cash Flow per Share for the
months ended in Sep. 2016 was $-3.55.
Its free cash flow per share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2016 was $-25.08.
The historical data trend for SolarCity'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.
SolarCity's Free Cash Flow for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2015 is calculated as
Free Cash Flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2016 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was $-2,532.4 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.
SolarCity (NAS:SCTY) 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.
* 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.
SolarCity Free Cash Flow Related Terms
Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of SolarCity's Free Cash Flow provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.
SolarCity Corp was incorporated as a Delaware corporation on June 21, 2006. The Company is engaged in the design, manufacture, installation and sale or lease of solar energy systems to residential and commercial customers, or sale of electricity generated by solar energy systems to customers. Its customers include residential, commercial and government. The residential customers are individual homeowners who want to switch to cleaner, more affordable energy. Residential customers also include homeowners within communities developed by home builders the company is partnered with. The Commercial customers represent diverse business sectors, including technology, retail, manufacturing, agriculture and nonprofits, including customers such as Walmart, eBay, HP, Walgreens, Intel, and Safeway, Mexican businesses such as Tiendas Soriana, and thousands of other businesses across the United States, including SMBs. For government the company has installed solar energy systems for various federal, state and municipal government entities, including the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy, the City of Lancaster, the City of San Jose, the City of Sacramento, the Department of Homeland Security and a number of schools and universities. The Company market and sell its products and services through a national sales organization that includes a direct outside sales force, a door-to-door sales force, call centers, a channel partner network and a robust customer referral program. It purchases components such as solar panels and inverters directly from multiple manufacturers. The Company's competitors include Vivint Solar Inc., Sunrun Inc., NRG Home Solar, Sungevity, Inc., Trinity Solar, Verengo, Inc., SunPower Corporation, SunEdison LLC, Borrego Solar Systems, Inc., G&S Solar Installers, Cenergy Power and numerous other companies. The Company's operations are subject to stringent and complex federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the occupational health and safety of its employees, wage regulations and environmental regulations.
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