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Beacon Lighting Group Limited (ASX:BLX): What’s In It For The Shareholders?

Beacon Lighting Group Limited (ASX:BLX) shareholders, and potential investors, need to understand how much cash the business makes from its core operational activities, as well as how much is invested back into the business. This difference directly flows down to how much the stock is worth. Operating in the home improvement retail industry, BLX is currently valued at AU$314.3m. I will take you through BLX’s cash flow health and the risk-return concept based on the stock’s cash flow yield, using the most recent financial data. This will help you think about the company from a cash perspective, which is a crucial factor to investing.

View our latest analysis for Beacon Lighting Group

What is free cash flow?

Beacon Lighting Group’s free cash flow (FCF) is the level of cash flow the business generates from its operational activities, after it reinvests in the company as capital expenditure. This type of expense is needed for Beacon Lighting Group to continue to grow, or at least, maintain its current operations.

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I will be analysing Beacon Lighting Group’s FCF by looking at its FCF yield and its operating cash flow growth. The yield will tell us whether the stock is generating enough cash to compensate for the risk investors take on by holding a single stock, which I will compare to the market index. The growth will proxy for sustainability levels of this cash generation.

Free Cash Flow = Operating Cash Flows – Net Capital Expenditure

Free Cash Flow Yield = Free Cash Flow / Enterprise Value

where Enterprise Value = Market Capitalisation + Net Debt

Beacon Lighting Group’s yield of 2.08% indicates its sub-standard capacity to generate cash, compared to the stock market index as a whole, accounting for the size differential. This means investors are taking on more concentrated risk on Beacon Lighting Group but are not being adequately rewarded for doing so.

ASX:BLX Net Worth September 18th 18
ASX:BLX Net Worth September 18th 18

What’s the cash flow outlook for Beacon Lighting Group?

Can BLX improve its operating cash production in the future? Let’s take a quick look at the cash flow trend the company is expected to deliver over time. In the next couple of years, the company is expected to grow its cash from operations at a double-digit rate of 65.0%, ramping up from its current levels of AU$15.5m to AU$25.6m in two years’ time. Although this seems impressive, breaking down into year-on-year growth rates, BLX’s operating cash flow growth is expected to decline from a rate of 47.2% next year, to 12.1% in the following year. But the overall future outlook seems buoyant if BLX can maintain its levels of capital expenditure as well.

Next Steps:

Although its positive operating cash flow, and high future growth, is appealing, the low free cash flow yield is unattractive. This is because you would be better compensated in terms of cash yield, by investing in the market index, as well as take on lower diversification risk. However, cash is only one aspect of investing. Keep in mind that cash is only one aspect of investment analysis and there are other important fundamentals to assess. You should continue to research Beacon Lighting Group to get a better picture of the company by looking at:

  1. Valuation: What is BLX worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether BLX is currently mispriced by the market.

  2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Beacon Lighting Group’s board and the CEO’s back ground.

  3. Other High-Performing Stocks: If you believe you should cushion your portfolio with something less risky, scroll through our free list of these great stocks here.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.