Musings on Markets

AUGUST 19, 2024

In fact, the business life cycle has become an integral part of the corporate finance, valuation and investing classes that I teach, and in many of the posts that I have written on this blog. Tech companies age in dog years, and the consequences for how we manage, value and invest in them are profound.

Corporate Finance 98

Corporate Finance Valuation Investments Finance 98

CFO News Room

JANUARY 18, 2023

Income from financial holdings (including cash balances, investments in financial securities and minority holdings in other businesses) are added back, and interest expenses on debt are subtracted out to get to taxable income. Returns on Invested Capital (or Equity).

Marketing 130

Marketing Hurdle Rate Investments Accounting 130

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

What is a hurdle rate for a business? There are multiple definitions that you will see offered, from it being the cost of raising capital for that business to an opportunity cost , i.e., a return that you can make investing elsewhere, to a required return for investors in that business. What is a hurdle rate?

Hurdle Rate 52

Hurdle Rate Currencies Investments Valuation 52

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

Income from financial holdings (including cash balances, investments in financial securities and minority holdings in other businesses) are added back, and interest expenses on debt are subtracted out to get to taxable income.

Hurdle Rate 82

Hurdle Rate Investments Accounting Entertainment 82

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Some of that variation can be attributed to different mixes of businesses in different regions, since unit economics will result in higher gross margins for technology companies and commodity companies, in years when commodity prices are high, and lower gross margins for heavy manufacturing and retail businesses.

Profit and Loss 52

Profit and Loss Investments Hurdle Rate Accounting 52

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 31, 2024

In my last three posts, I looked at the macro (equity risk premiums, default spreads, risk free rates) and micro (company risk measures) that feed into the expected returns we demand on investments, and argued that these expected returns become hurdle rates for businesses, in the form of costs of equity and capital.

Hurdle Rate 78

Hurdle Rate Profit and Loss Investments Accounting 78

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 5, 2024

In January 1993, I was valuing a retail company, and I found myself wondering what a reasonable margin was for a firm operating in the retail business. In pursuit of an answer to that question, I used company-specific data from Value Line, one of the earliest entrants into the investment data business, to compute an industry average.

Valuation 100

Valuation Financial Analysis Analyzing Data Profit and Loss 100