Musings on Markets

MARCH 5, 2025

It also follows that the investment, financing, and dividend decisions , at most firms, are interconnected, since for any given set of investments, borrowing more money will free up more cash flows to return to shareholders, and for any given financing, investing more back into the business will leave less in returnable cash flows.

Corporate Finance 52

Corporate Finance Investments Finance Hurdle Rate 52

CFO News Room

JANUARY 7, 2023

Check rules of thumb : Investing and corporate finance are full of rules of thumb, many of long standing. Finance but also from a variety of online data services that are affordable and very well done. . Or, do US companies pay far less in taxes than companies incorporated in the rest of the world?

Marketing 130

Marketing Valuation Corporate Finance Financial Analysis 130

Musings on Markets

MARCH 8, 2023

This is the last of my data update posts for 2023, and in this one, I will focus on dividends and buybacks, perhaps the most most misunderstood and misplayed element of corporate finance. Viewed in that context, dividends as just as integral to a business, as the investing and financing decisions.

Hurdle Rate 102

Hurdle Rate Corporate Finance Investments Finance 102

CFO News Room

JANUARY 18, 2023

In my last post, I noted the decline in costs of capital for firms over time, noting that the median cost of capital at the start of 2022 is only 6.33%, across global firms, and argued that companies that demand double-digit hurdle rates risk being shut out of investments.

Marketing 130

Marketing Hurdle Rate Investments Accounting 130

Musings on Markets

AUGUST 15, 2023

In every introductory finance class, you begin with the notion of a risk-free investment, and the rate on that investment becomes the base on which you build, to get to expected returns on risky assets and investments. Why does the risk-free rate matter? and the reverse will occur, when risk-free rates drop.

Investments 98

Investments Currencies Treasury Hurdle Rate 98

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 5, 2024

I have also developed a practice in the last decade of spending much of January exploring what the data tells us, and does not tell us, about the investing, financing and dividend choices that companies made during the most recent year. Tax rates 4. Financing Flows 5. Insider, CEO & Institutional holdings 2. Debt Details 1.

Valuation 105

Valuation Financial Analysis Analyzing Data Profit and Loss 105

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 12, 2021

Corporate Finance : Corporate finance is the development of the first financial principles that govern how to run a business. It is that mission that makes corporate finance the ultimate big picture class, one that everyone (entrepreneurs, investors, analysts, business observers) should take.

Valuation 52

Valuation Corporate Finance Finance Investments 52

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

In my last post, I noted the decline in costs of capital for firms over time, noting that the median cost of capital at the start of 2022 is only 6.33%, across global firms, and argued that companies that demand double-digit hurdle rates risk being shut out of investments.

Hurdle Rate 98

Hurdle Rate Investments Accounting Entertainment 98

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 6, 2023

Check rules of thumb : Investing and corporate finance are full of rules of thumb, many of long standing. The second is that in my line of work, which is corporate finance and valuation, the numbers I need lie in micro or company-level data, not in the macro space. Cap Ex & Net Cap Ex ((including acquisitons) 2.

Valuation 52

Valuation Corporate Finance Financial Analysis Leverage 52

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

. “ Global Corporate Banking 2016: The Next-Generation Corporate Bank ” found that less than a third of corporate banking divisions across North America and Asia, and less than half in Europe, experienced “positive and growing economic profit” between 2013 and 2015.

Banking 43

Banking Hurdle Rate Benchmarking Economics 43

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

The second is that borrowing money will increase perceived default risk, and if the company is rated, lower ratings, and that too is true, but borrowing money at a BBB rating, with the tax benefit incorporated, might still yield a lower cost of funding that staying at a AA rating, with no debt in use.

Corporate Finance 52

Corporate Finance Finance Marketing Banking 52

Barry Ritholtz

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

His latest book could not be more timely, “The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest,” it’s all about the history of interest rates, money lending, investing speculation, funded by banks and loans and credit. According to Chancellor, interest is the single most important feature of finance, both ancient and modern.

Valuation 59

Valuation Finance Investments Banking 59

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 9, 2021

The first is that I do not have a macro focus, and my interests in macro variables occur only in the context of corporate finance or valuation issues. If you use it at their jobs as corporate finance or equity analysts, I am glad to take some of that burden off you, and I hope that you find more enjoyable uses for the time you save.

Valuation 52

Valuation Currencies Numbers Corporate Finance 52

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 28, 2024

In this post, I look at risk, a central theme in finance and investing, but one that is surprisingly misunderstood and misconstrued. I do believe that, in finance, we have significant advances in understanding what risk, I also think that as a discipline, finance has missed the mark on risk, in three ways. What is risk?

Hurdle Rate 117

Hurdle Rate Concentration Investments Finance 117

Musings on Markets

JULY 24, 2024

Country Risk in Business Most corporate finance classes and textbooks leave students with the proposition that the right hurdle rate to use in assessing business investments is the cost of capital, but create a host of confusion about what exactly that cost of capital measures.

Hurdle Rate 75

Hurdle Rate Currencies Valuation Economics 75