Cash Flow Statement

Cap Ex

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Capital expenditure over the trailing 12 months — spending on property, plant, and equipment. Compare to depreciation to see if the company invests enough to replace aging assets.

Cap Ex as a % of Sales

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Percentage

Capex as a percentage of sales. Under 5% is capital-light; 5–15% moderate; above 15% capital-heavy.

Cash Conversion Ratio (Premium Plus)

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Number

Operating cash flow divided by EBITDA. Measures how efficiently reported earnings convert to actual cash. Unlike FCF-to-CFO, this compares cash generation directly to the accrual-based earnings figure, catching working capital games and depreciation schedule manipulation.

General benchmarks: Consistently above 1.0 indicates high-quality earnings with minimal accrual manipulation; below 0.7 is a warning sign.

Dividend Coverage Ratio

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Ratio

TTM EPS divided by the forward annual dividend rate. Shows how many times earnings can cover the dividend.

General benchmarks: Above 2.0x is well covered; below 1.0x means earnings don’t cover the dividend.

Dividends Cash Flow

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Total dividends paid to all shareholders (common, preferred, noncontrolling) over the trailing 12 months. Compare to free cash flow to assess sustainability.

FCF Consistency (Ultimate)

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Percent

Percentage of trailing ten years (or maximum available history) in which the company generated positive free cash flow. A perfect score of 100% means positive FCF in every year of the past decade, indicating a fundamentally cash-generative business model.

How to use it: Income investors should screen on this metric since a single bad FCF year can trigger a dividend cut. Pairs naturally with Dividend Safety Score and FCF payout ratio.

Financing Cash Flow

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Net cash from financing activities. Includes debt issuance/repayment, equity issuance/buybacks, and dividends. Negative is often healthy (returning cash).

Free Cash Flow

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Cash from operations minus capex. The cash available for dividends, buybacks, debt reduction, or acquisitions. Consistently positive and growing FCF is a hallmark of a high-quality business.

Free Cash Flow Payout Ratio (Premium Plus)

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Percentage

This alternative dividend payout ratio aims to be more accurate by excluding accounting earnings and including only actual cash generation. Calculated as Dividend Per Share as a percent of Free Cash Flow per Share. Note that the Forward Dividend Yield is used along with the TTM Free Cash Flow.

General benchmarks: Values less than 70% are considered safe; above 100% means the company pays more in dividends than it generates in free cash flow, which is unsustainable long-term.

Free Cash Flow as a % of Net Income

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Percentage

Free cash flow as a percentage of net income. Above 80% indicates high earnings quality; below 50% may signal aggressive accounting or heavy capex needs.

Free Cash Flow as a % of Sales

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Percentage

Free cash flow as a percentage of sales. Above 15% is excellent; 5–15% solid; below 5% indicates poor cash conversion.

Investing Cash Flow

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Cash spent on capital investments and acquisitions. Negative is normal for growing businesses; positive may indicate asset sales.

Maintenance Cap Ex (Premium Plus)

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Maintenance Capital Expenditure attempts to isolate the ongoing cost portion of capex and exclude the growth capex that is an investment in future sales. We use Bruce Greenwald’s method, which multiplies the long-term Gross PP&E to Sales ratio by the current year’s increase in sales and subtracts that from Cap Ex.

How to use it: Subtract from total capex to estimate how much is growth capex (optional) vs. maintenance capex (required).

Operating Cash Flow

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Cash from operations (CFO) over the trailing 12 months. Unlike net income, CFO is harder to manipulate and excludes non-cash items. If CFO consistently exceeds net income, earnings quality is high.

Owner Earnings

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Owner Earnings is cash flow available to shareholders, a measure of how much money the company generates for its owners. Warren Buffett values this measurement and defines it as net income plus depreciation and amortization, less capital expenditure and change in working capital.

Payout Ratio

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Percentage

Dividend per share as a percentage of diluted EPS. Shows what fraction of earnings is returned as dividends.

General benchmarks: Under 40% is conservative; 40–60% moderate; 60–80% elevated; above 80% may not be sustainable (except REITs by design).

Stock Proceeds

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

Net cash from issuing stock. Negative values mean more buybacks than issuance (shareholder-friendly). Persistent positive values mean ongoing dilution.

Stock Based Compensation

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Millions of Dollars

The annual cost of stock-based compensation (equity grants to employees). Although a non-cash expense, it represents real dilution. See SBC % of FCF for context.

SBC % of Free Cash Flow (Premium Plus)

Chartable: Yes

Unit: Percent

Stock-based compensation as a percentage of free cash flow. Measures how much of reported free cash flow is effectively offset by equity dilution granted to employees. A ratio of 40% means shareholders are giving back nearly half the cash generation through dilution.

General benchmarks: Above 30% warrants caution; above 50% means most of the reported FCF is illusory from a shareholder perspective. Particularly relevant for technology and growth companies.