Looking for clarification on how to answer the classic "Can you walk me from net income to free cash flow?" question.
In my mind there are three ways:
1) From CFI website ("Free Cash Flow (FCF) Formula" article): CFO - CAPEX = NI + D&A - change WC - CAPEX
2) From 400 guide (Levered): NI + D&A - CAPEX - change WC - Net pmt debt principal
3) From 400 guide (Unlevered) NI + interest*(1-tax rate) + D&A - CAPEX - change WC
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all formulas are correct. Would just make sure to know whether capex is maintenance vs growth. My bank also considers distributions and taxes in FCF but other than that looks good to me.
And then most of the time when it’s a company reporting FCF it’s just cash flow from ops - capex
Just look at a statement of cash flows - the reconciliation is almost all the way there vis-a-vis CFOps.....that's kind of the entire point of calculating cash flow from operations, as a reconciliation from (accrual-based) net income to (cash-based) cash flow from operations.
Back out capex from CFI and, voila, you have arrived at FCF.
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