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Estimating The Fair Value Of Metro Inc. (TSE:MRU)

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Does the May share price for Metro Inc. (TSE:MRU) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

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See our latest analysis for Metro

Is Metro fairly valued?

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

2027

2028

Levered FCF (CA$, Millions)

CA$579.35

CA$722.50

CA$680.70

CA$656.27

CA$643.61

CA$638.69

CA$638.99

CA$642.94

CA$649.48

CA$657.89

Growth Rate Estimate Source

Analyst x2

Analyst x4

Analyst x1

Est @ -3.59%

Est @ -1.93%

Est @ -0.77%

Est @ 0.05%

Est @ 0.62%

Est @ 1.02%

Est @ 1.3%

Present Value (CA$, Millions) Discounted @ 6.72%

CA$542.89

CA$634.43

CA$560.12

CA$506.03

CA$465.05

CA$432.45

CA$405.43

CA$382.27

CA$361.85

CA$343.48

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= CA$4.63b

"Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 1.9%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 6.7%.

Terminal Value (TV) = FCF2029 × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = CA$658m × (1 + 1.9%) ÷ (6.7% – 1.9%) = CA$14b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV) = TV / (1 + r)10 = CA$CA$14b ÷ ( 1 + 6.7%)10 = CA$7.34b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is CA$11.98b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. This results in an intrinsic value estimate of CA$46.93. Relative to the current share price of CA$49.57, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

TSX:MRU Intrinsic value, May 31st 2019
TSX:MRU Intrinsic value, May 31st 2019

The assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Metro as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.7%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Metro, There are three fundamental factors you should further examine:

  1. Financial Health: Does MRU have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.

  2. Future Earnings: How does MRU's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart.

  3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of MRU? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the TSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.