Darc Knight
Investor not Trader
- Joined
- 28 February 2015
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I'm not an accountant, no. But I have written an accounting software... so accounting for investors?
An investor, in looking at the financial statements, is not really there to value the business precisely.
No one can value a large business precisely, not even the executives, and definitely not the board. This is because the value of a business always move... it is organic, grow and shrinks.
But more importantly, as you know, being an accountant... the data are estimates... in large corporations, larger estimates. Estimates that are often delayed.
But aside from that, a business' value is about where it'll be years from now.
SO already there's two approach to valuing the business - its book value, assuming it's all up to date and approximately about right and honestly estimated. Then there's the future prospects.. i.e. putting those assets to use, expanding into new markets... the likelihood of such possibilities bringing the cash back given the financial position, the product, competitors etc.
Can't value it based on future possibilities of world domination; shouldn't really go for the book value/asset pricing only approach either... So it'll depend on the business you're looking at.
But it is possible to value a business from its financials. Some companies' position made it possible to be more confident about the estimate; some you just don't want to touch.
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Here's how I value Sirtex in three charts.
Remember Sirtex? Its CEO allegedly [ASIC reckons he did it too] trade on insider info. The new products they're planning to expand into "fail" because it didn't extend life in other cancer patient.
From about $20 to $25 its share price drop to $16, then soon after to $10.50s in matter of months?
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Above show that Sirtex is not going to go broke. Its cash and receivables alone more than meet coming liabilities. Inventory is produced on demand.
Compare that to Dick Smith and you can kinda see that Dick is in serious trouble if they don't move a large chunk of their inventory.
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My favourite chart. Things moving in the right direction. Much like Wal-Mart.
So you know it's a good business.
Other factors also backed this up... Returns, margins etc.
What about the price?
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Below a conservative estimate of modest/inflation-pegged "growth" of 2.5% a year.
And that's on the reported earnings during years where they've spent abnormally on R&D, testing to expand their drugs into other areas. With the tests coming to and end, normalised earnings will be higher.
That does not include the planned expansion into China and other markets.
But assuming none of that happened... can the business remain as it is, in its current form and be worth the investment being asked?
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I'm not an Accountant, I couldn't bare the thought of doing the CA or CPA programs. My initial work taught me that. I know Accountants who have walked away from Accounting due to pressure to sign off on illegalities.
You're a smart cookie Luu, I'll have to take the time to fully digest your post, time I don't currently have. Can you give me a link to your investing software pls. So you incorporate both Fundamental and Technical analysis? Thanks!