An Intrinsic Calculation For Superior Plus Corp. (TSE:SPB) Shows It’s 21.62% Undervalued

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I am going to run you through how I calculated the intrinsic value of Superior Plus Corp. (TSE:SPB) by estimating the company’s future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. I will be using the discounted cash flows (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the basis for my calcs can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model. Please also note that this article was written in February 2019 so be sure check out the updated calculation by following the link below.

See our latest analysis for Superior Plus

Step by step through the calculation

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second ‘steady growth’ period. To start off with we need to estimate the next five years of cash flows. For this I used the consensus of the analysts covering the stock, as you can see below. I then discount this to its value today and sum up the total to get the present value of these cash flows.

5-year cash flow estimate

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Levered FCF (CA$, Millions)	CA$268.08	CA$248.30	CA$213.75	CA$184.01	CA$158.41
Source	Analyst x4	Analyst x3	Est @ -13.91%	Est @ -13.91%	Est @ -13.91%
Present Value Discounted @ 8.39%	CA$247.33	CA$211.35	CA$167.86	CA$133.32	CA$105.89

Present Value of 5-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= CA$866m

After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the intial 5-year period we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at an annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 1.9%. We discount this to today’s value at a cost of equity of 8.4%.

Terminal Value (TV) = FCF₂₀₂₃ × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = CA$158m × (1 + 1.9%) ÷ (8.4% – 1.9%) = CA$2.5b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV) = TV / (1 + r)⁵ = CA$2.5b ÷ ( 1 + 8.4%)⁵ = CA$1.7b

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next five years and the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is CA$2.5b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. If the stock is an depositary receipt (represents a specified number of shares in a foreign corporation) or ADR then we use the equivalent number. This results in an intrinsic value of CA$14.53. Relative to the current share price of CA$11.39, the stock is about right, perhaps slightly undervalued at a 22% discount to what it is available for right now.

TSX:SPB Intrinsic Value Export February 13th 19

Important assumptions

I’d like to point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. You don’t have to agree with my inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. Because we are looking at Superior Plus as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighed average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation I’ve used 8.4%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. This is derived from the Bottom-Up Beta method based on 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. What is the reason for the share price to differ from the intrinsic value? For SPB, I’ve put together three relevant aspects you should further research:

1. Financial Health: Does SPB 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 SPB’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 SPB? 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 for every stock on the TSE every 6 hours. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.