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Estimating The Fair Value Of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

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How far off is StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. I will be using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model.

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See our latest analysis for StoneCo

The model

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

2027

2028

Levered FCF (R$, Millions)

R$765.00

R$1.29k

R$1.57k

R$1.80k

R$1.99k

R$2.16k

R$2.31k

R$2.43k

R$2.55k

R$2.65k

Growth Rate Estimate Source

Analyst x1

Analyst x1

Analyst x1

Est @ 14.44%

Est @ 10.92%

Est @ 8.47%

Est @ 6.75%

Est @ 5.54%

Est @ 4.7%

Est @ 4.11%

Present Value (R$, Millions) Discounted @ 8.99%

R$701.87

R$1.09k

R$1.21k

R$1.27k

R$1.29k

R$1.29k

R$1.26k

R$1.22k

R$1.17k

R$1.12k

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= R$11.63b

"Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St

We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 10-year government bond rate (2.7%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 9%.

Terminal Value (TV) = FCF2029 × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = R$2.7b × (1 + 2.7%) ÷ (9% – 2.7%) = R$44b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV) = TV / (1 + r)10 = R$R$44b ÷ ( 1 + 9%)10 = R$18.38b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is R$30.02b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. This results in an intrinsic value estimate in the company’s reported currency of R$108.22. However, STNE’s primary listing is in Brazil, and 1 share of STNE in BRL represents 0.262 ( BRL/ USD) share of NasdaqGS:STNE, so the intrinsic value per share in USD is $28.33. Compared to the current share price of $29.14, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

NasdaqGS:STNE Intrinsic value, June 23rd 2019
NasdaqGS:STNE Intrinsic value, June 23rd 2019

The assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at StoneCo as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 9%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.051. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For StoneCo, I've put together three relevant factors you should further research:

  1. Financial Health: Does STNE have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.

  2. Future Earnings: How does STNE's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart.

  3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of STNE? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the NASDAQ every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.