Professional Documents
Culture Documents
based compensation treatment in the DCF is almost always wrong | Wall Street Prep Wall Street Prep
Wall treet Prep | www.walltreetprep.com
tock aed compenation treatment in the DCF i almot
alwa wrong
The WP log > Quick Leon
tock aed compenation in the DCF
In the eekingAlpha pot, the author aerted that C repreent a true cot to exiting equit owner ut i uuall not full re ected in the DCF. Thi i
correct. Invetment anker and tock analt routinel add ack the non-cah C expene to net income when forecating FCF o no cot i ever
recognized in the DCF for future option and retricted tock grant. Thi i quite prolematic for companie that have igni cant C, ecaue a compan
that iue C i diluting it exiting owner. NYU Profeor Awath Damodaran argue that to x thi prolem, analt hould not add ack C expene to
net income when calculating FCF, and intead hould treat it a if it were a cah expene:
“The tock-aed compenation ma not repreent cah ut it i o onl ecaue the compan ha ued a arter tem to evade the cah �ow
e埤�ect. Put di埤�erentl, if the compan had iued the option and retricted tock (that it wa planning to give emploee) to the market and then
ued the cah proceed to pa emploee, we would have treated it a a cah expene… We have to hold equit compenation to a di埤�erent
tandard than we do non-cah expene like depreciation, and e le cavalier aout adding them ack. Full
article: http://awathdamodaran.logpot.com/2014/02/tock-aed-emploee-compenation-value.html
https://www.wallstreetprep.com/blog/stockbasedcompensationtreatmentdcfalmostalwayswrong/ 1/8
6/1/2017 Stock based compensation treatment in the DCF is almost always wrong | Wall Street Prep Wall Street Prep
While thi olution addree the valuation impact of C to e iued in the future. What aout retricted tock and option iued in the pat that have et to
vet? Analt generall do a it etter with thi, including alread-iued option and retricted tock in the hare count ued to calculate fair value per hare
in the DCF. However it hould e noted that mot analt ignore unveted retricted tock and option a well a out-of-the-mone option, leading to an
overvaluation of fair value per hare. Profeor Damodaran advocate for di erent approach here a well:
“If a compan ha ued option in the pat to compenate emploee and thee option are till live, the repreent another claim on equit (eide
that of the common tockholder) and the value of thi claim ha to e netted out of the value of equit to arrive at the value of common tock. The
latter hould then e divided the actual numer of hare outtanding to get to the value per hare. (Retricted tock hould have no deadweight
cot and can jut e included in the outtanding hare toda).”
Putting it all together, let’ compare how analt currentl treat C and Damodaran’ uggeted 힣�xe:
WHN CALCULATING FCF UD IN DCF
What analt uuall do: Add ack C
Damodaran approach: Don’t add ack C
ottom line: The prolem with what analt currentl do i that the are tematicall overvaluing uinee ignoring thi expene.
Damodaran’ olution i to treat C expene a if it were a cah expene, arguing that unlike depreciation and other non cah expene, C
expene repreent a clear economic cot to the equit owner.
WHN CALCULATING QUITY VALU PR HAR…
What analt uuall do: Add the impact of alread-iued dilutive ecuritie to common hare.
Option: In-the-$ veted option are included (uing the treaur tock method). All other option are ignored.
Retricted tock: Veted retricted tock i alread included in common hare. Unveted retricted tock i ometime ignored anali;
ometime included.
Damodaran approach: Option: Calculate the value of option and reduce equit value thi amount. Do not add option to common hare.
Retricted tock: Veted retricted tock i alread included in common hare. Include all unveted retricted tock in the hare count (can appl
ome dicount for forfeiture, etc.).
https://www.wallstreetprep.com/blog/stockbasedcompensationtreatmentdcfalmostalwayswrong/ 2/8
6/1/2017 Stock based compensation treatment in the DCF is almost always wrong | Wall Street Prep Wall Street Prep
ottom line: We don’t have a ig a prolem with the “wall treet” approach here. A long a unveted retricted tock i included, Wall treet’
approach i (uuall) going to e ne. There are de nitel prolem with completel ignoring unveted option a well a out of the $ option, ut
the pale in comparion to ignoring future C entirel.
How ig of a prolem i thi, reall?
Current hare price i $40
1 million hare of common tock (include 0.1m veted retricted hare)
0.1m full veted in-the-$ option with an exercie price of $4 per hare
An additional 0.05m unveted option with the ame $4 exercie price
All the option together have an intrinic value of $7m
0.06m in unveted retricted tock
Annual FCF of $5m in perpetuit (no growth), and ignore an C expene
Annual forecat C expene of $1m, in perpetuit no growth
WACC i 10%
Compan carrie$5m in det, $1m in cah
xcluding C (The tpical analt approach):
nterprie value = $5m/10% = $50m.
quit value = $50m-$5m+$1m=$46m.
Including C (Damodaran’ approach):
nterprie value = ($5m-$1m)/10% = $40m.
quit value = $40m-$5m+$1m=$36m.
https://www.wallstreetprep.com/blog/stockbasedcompensationtreatmentdcfalmostalwayswrong/ 3/8
6/1/2017 Stock based compensation treatment in the DCF is almost always wrong | Wall Street Prep Wall Street Prep
In thi example, ignoring C lead to a greater that 20% overvaluation. Now let’ turn to the iue of pre-exiting C…
The tpical analt approach:
Diluted hare outtanding uing the treaur tock method = 1m+0.6m (0.1m – $0.4m/$40 per hare) = 1.09m.
Note: We are including unveted retricted hare ecaue it i logical to aume eventual dilution from them arring forfeiture. Mot analt
exclude unveted option, o we will too.
quit value per hare = $46m / 1.09m = $42.20
Including C (Damodaran’ approach):
quit value after removing value of option = $36m – $3m = $33m
Diluted hare = 1m + 0.6m = 1.06m (ignore option in the denominator ecaue ou’re counting their value in the numerator)
quit value per hare = $33m / 1.06m = $31.13
The di힃�erence in approache here i not o igni힣�cant a mot of the di힃�erence i attriutale to the C add ack iue. Here Damodaran i
impl re힣�ecting the option value in the numerator while analt re힣�ect it in the denominator.
The ottom line
The wa that analt currentl treat tock aed compenation expene in DCF model ignore an cot aociated with iuing tock option. That mean
that a tpical DCF for Amazon, whoe tock aed compenation package enale it to attract top engineer will re ect all the ene t from having great
emploee ut will not re ect the cot that come in the form of inevitale and igni cant future dilution to current hareholder. Thi ovioul lead to
overvaluation of companie that iue a lot of C. Damodaran’ olution hould e implemented in thee cae.
Written Matan Feldman
mfeldman@walltreetprep.com
Matan Feldman i Wall treet Prep’ Founder and Managing Partner. Hi reponiilitie include uine development, development of coure, and overeeing
training program. Matan ha overeen training program for client including Morgan tanle, Credit uie, Ramond Jame, tifel Nicolau, FR Capital Market,
agent Advior, Giuliani Capital Advior, JP Morgan, Cereru, Wharton uine chool, London uine chool, Kellogg, ooth, tern (NYU), and Cornell. Prior to
founding Wall treet Prep, Matan erved in everal capacitie on Wall treet — rt a an Analt in Chae Manhattan ank' Merger & Acquiition Group in New
York, and uequentl a an Aociate within JP Morgan' quit Reearch Group, covering Food & Drug Retail quitie.
https://www.wallstreetprep.com/blog/stockbasedcompensationtreatmentdcfalmostalwayswrong/ 4/8