Is FCF Yield UFCF or LFCF?

Title sums up question. Context, see article here.

Free Cash Flow Yield (FCF Yield)

FCF yield is a financial solvency ratio of a company. It has been touted by some investors to be a better measure of company performance than earnings per share due to the emphasis on the cash flow statement over the income statement in this metric.

FCF yield can be defined in two ways

1. FCF yield = FCF per share / Market Value per share
2. FCF yield = FCF / Market Capitalization

The latter is usually employed as FCF can be found on the cash flow statement and market capitalization can be easily found using databases such as Bloomberg or FactSet. On the contrary, the former method requires the discovery of the shares outstanding of a company and information regarding shares outstanding may be dated or inaccurate if the company is thinly traded or has buyback schemes.

Some investors may view FCF yield as a better measure of company performance because they believe it is a more accurate representation than earnings per share. This is because FCF yield, unlike earnings per share, considers the financial health of the company (i.e. liquidity) and gives an idea of the accessibility to cash from operations in cases of unexpected obligations. Further, the ability to yield cash flow is a better indicator of long-term value than paper profitability.

The lower the yield, the less attractive a company is to investors as this suggests that the shares are trading at a higher market value per share despite not generating a superior cash flow to justify it.

On the contrary, a high FCF yield would suggest the valuation of the company is attractive as the company is generating enough cash flow to satisfy debt obligations and possible increases in dividend payments or buyback schemes. This would lead to an increase in return for the investors should the valuation multiples for the shares increase.