Is There An Opportunity With Cardlytics, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:CDLX) 31% Undervaluation?

Key Insights

• Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, Cardlytics fair value estimate is US$19.74

• Current share price of US$13.67 suggests Cardlytics is potentially 31% undervalued

• Analyst price target for CDLX is US$17.00 which is 14% below our fair value estimate

Does the April share price for Cardlytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDLX) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. Our analysis will employ the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex.

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 still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

See our latest analysis for Cardlytics

The Method

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of 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.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, 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

	2024	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033
Levered FCF ($, Millions)	US$6.57m	US$14.5m	US$21.6m	US$29.1m	US$36.4m	US$43.1m	US$48.9m	US$53.9m	US$58.1m	US$61.7m
Growth Rate Estimate Source	Analyst x1	Analyst x1	Est @ 49.04%	Est @ 35.02%	Est @ 25.20%	Est @ 18.33%	Est @ 13.51%	Est @ 10.15%	Est @ 7.79%	Est @ 6.14%
Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 6.9%	US$6.1	US$12.7	US$17.7	US$22.3	US$26.1	US$28.9	US$30.7	US$31.7	US$31.9	US$31.7

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)
Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$240m

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 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.3%) 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 6.9%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF₂₀₃₃ × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = US$62m× (1 + 2.3%) ÷ (6.9%– 2.3%) = US$1.4b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)¹⁰= US$1.4b÷ ( 1 + 6.9%)¹⁰= US$708m

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is US$948m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of US$13.7, the company appears quite good value at a 31% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

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 Cardlytics 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 6.9%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.997. 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.

SWOT Analysis for Cardlytics

Strength

• Debt is well covered by earnings.

Weakness

• Shareholders have been diluted in the past year.

Opportunity

• Forecast to reduce losses next year.

• Has sufficient cash runway for more than 3 years based on current free cash flows.

• Trading below our estimate of fair value by more than 20%.

Threat

• Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.

• Not expected to become profitable over the next 3 years.

Next Steps:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For example, changes in the company's cost of equity or the risk free rate can significantly impact the valuation. Why is the intrinsic value higher than the current share price? For Cardlytics, we've put together three essential elements you should explore:

1. Risks: Case in point, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Cardlytics you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant.

2. Future Earnings: How does CDLX'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 Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every American stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.