Is There An Opportunity With Pan American Silver Corp.'s (TSE:PAAS) 37% Undervaluation?

Key Insights

• Pan American Silver's estimated fair value is CA$32.66 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

• Pan American Silver's CA$20.69 share price signals that it might be 37% undervalued

• Our fair value estimate is similar to Pan American Silver's analyst price target of US$32.97

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Pan American Silver Corp. (TSE:PAAS) as an investment opportunity by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Pan American Silver

Is Pan American Silver Fairly Valued?

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 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

	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029	2030	2031	2032
Levered FCF ($, Millions)	US$178.3m	US$497.4m	US$640.0m	US$672.0m	US$696.8m	US$718.5m	US$738.1m	US$756.1m	US$773.2m	US$789.5m
Growth Rate Estimate Source	Analyst x5	Analyst x6	Analyst x4	Analyst x1	Est @ 3.69%	Est @ 3.12%	Est @ 2.72%	Est @ 2.45%	Est @ 2.25%	Est @ 2.12%
Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 8.9%	US$164	US$420	US$496	US$478	US$455	US$431	US$407	US$383	US$359	US$337

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)
Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$3.9b

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (1.8%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 8.9%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF₂₀₃₂ × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = US$790m× (1 + 1.8%) ÷ (8.9%– 1.8%) = US$11b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)¹⁰= US$11b÷ ( 1 + 8.9%)¹⁰= US$4.8b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$8.8b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of CA$20.7, the company appears quite good value at a 37% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

Important Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual 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 Pan American Silver 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 8.9%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.194. 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.

SWOT Analysis for Pan American Silver

Strength

• Net debt to equity ratio below 40%.

Weakness

• Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Metals and Mining market.

• Shareholders have been diluted in the past year.

Opportunity

• Expected to breakeven next year.

• Trading below our estimate of fair value by more than 20%.

Threat

• Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.

• Paying a dividend but company is unprofitable.

Moving On:

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. Can we work out why the company is trading at a discount to intrinsic value? For Pan American Silver, we've compiled three fundamental aspects you should further research:

1. Risks: For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Pan American Silver that you should be aware of before investing here.

2. Future Earnings: How does PAAS'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: Do you like a good all-rounder? 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 TSX every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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