Covance's total free cash flow for the
months ended in Sep. 2014 was
€80 Mil.
Its total free cash flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2014 was €124 Mil.
Covance's Free Cash Flow per Share for the
months ended in Sep. 2014 was €1.40.
Its free cash flow per share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2014 was €2.17.
The historical data trend for Covance'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.
Covance's Free Cash Flow for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2013 is calculated as
Free Cash Flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Sep. 2014 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was €124 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.
Covance (FRA:CVD) 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.
Covance Free Cash Flow Related Terms
Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Covance's Free Cash Flow provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.
Covance, Inc is a Delaware Corporation, founded in 1987. The Company is a drug development services company providing early-stage and late-stage product development services mainly to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. It also provides laboratory testing services to the chemical, agrochemical and food industries. Its two reportable segments are early development services, which include discovery support services, preclinical services and clinical pharmacology services; and late-stage development services, which include central laboratory, Phase II-IV clinical development, and market access services. The Company's preclinical services include toxicology services, pharmaceutical chemistry and related services. The Company's preclinical area has been a source of innovation by introducing new technologies for client access to data such as StudyTracker, electronic animal identification, multimedia study reports and animal and test tube measures of induced cell proliferation or reproduction. The Company's preclinical toxicology services include in vivo toxicology studies, which are studies of the effects of drugs in animals, genetic toxicology studies, which include studies of the effects of drugs on chromosomes, as well as on genetically modified mice and other specialized toxicology services. In its pharmaceutical chemistry services, it determines the metabolic profile and bioavailability of drug candidates. It also provides laboratory testing services to the chemical, agricultural chemical and food industries. The Company offers services to agricultural chemical manufacturers to determine the potential risk to humans, animals and the environment from plant protection products such as pesticides. In its nutritional chemistry services, the Company offers a range of services to the food, nutriceutical and animal feed industries, including nutritional analysis and equivalency, nutritional content fact labels, microbiological and chemical contaminant safety analysis, pesticide screening and stability testing. It provides custom polyclonal and monoclonal antibody services for research purposes and purpose-bred animals for biomedical research. The Company provides optimization and translational services including custom immunology and monoclonal antibody services, metabolism studies and pharmacokinetic screening as well as non-GLP toxicology, in vivo pharmacology, imaging services and biomarker services. The Company's bioanalytical testing services helps determine the appropriate dose and frequency of drug application from late discovery evaluation through Phase III clinical testing on a full-scale, globally integrated basis. The Company provides clinical pharmacology services, including first-in-human trials, of new pharmaceuticals at its seven clinics located throughout the United States and its one clinic in Leeds, United Kingdom. The Company offers reimbursement and healthcare economics consulting services
Quick Browse
Personalize
Premium Gurus 
Create New Portfolio
Portfolio Contest
FRA:CVD has been successfully added to your 