Cash flow metrics. There are a number of different ways to define cash flow, so we will look at a variety of metrics that are used in credit analysis. Funds from operations estimates a company's inherent ability to generate recurring cash flow from its operations independent of working capital fluctuations. This is very common and is used in a lot of ratios as well. The issue with funds from operations, of course, is that by design, it leaves out changes in working capital, and it also ignores capital spending and discretionary items such as dividends, acquisitions, et cetera. Operating cash flow is cash generated by the core operations of the business. This now includes the working capital, but it ignores the requirement to replace fixed assets either for growth or for maintenance. Free operating cash flow or free cash flow is cash generated by the core operations of the business, less capex. It does ignore debt repayments and it also ignores dividends. Leverage cash flow or levered cash flow is the cash generated by the core operations of the business, less capex as well as less any debt maturities. Last is discretionary cash flow, which is the cash generated by the core operations of the business, less capex. Now it ignores the debt maturities, but it does include dividends to shareholders. The issue here is that it captures dividends even though dividends rank lower than interest payments. If we look at a generic cash flow statement, we can see how these metrics are pulled together. The operating cash flow comes straight off of the cash flow statement. That in this case would be the 90. If we were to desire instead funds from operations, what we would have to do is take the operating cash flow and then back out the changes in working capital. So in this case, we would add back the 30 and get to 120. For free cash flow or free operating cash flow, we go back to the operating cash flow, and now what we're gonna do is subtract the capex. The disposals and acquisitions we're going to ignore, because these are things that are not standard or not really recurring. Next would be the levered cash flow, which would be the operating cash flow less the investing cash flow, less the debt repayments. Now in this case, we have the choice of using either just the capex or the total investing cash flow, and that's because for levered cash flow, we really wanna see how much cash in total is available to make any maturity payments that are due, so we would gladly take the cash from asset sales to pay down the debt. So for this, it would be the 90 of the operating cash flow, less than 35 of investing, less than 20 for any debt repayments. And finally, we have discretionary cash flow, which is the free operating cash flow from above, which is 50 less the dividends, which are also 50, and that leaves us with zero. Here's some cash flow ratios that can be used instead of, for example, the traditional total debt to EBITDA, you might see funds from operations, operating cash flow, free operating cash flow, or discretionary cash flow used over total debt. And on the coverage side, instead of EBITDA interest or its variations, we might see funds from operations with interest added back over the cash interest expense. Interest has to be added back to funds from operations because it's already been deducted. It's one of the beauties of using EBITDA is that it's already before interest and no additional adjustments have to be made. Some lenders may use other metrics. It's worth noting that Moody's prefers FFO to other cash flow metrics, as they see it as pure. Management can often use OWC to smooth over the volatility of the earnings. And as we've learned, understanding the volatility of the earnings is one of the things that a credit analyst needs to be able to do.
