We like to dig into the numbers and uncover the true intrinsic worth of companies. In Abbott's (ABT) case, we think it is worth just under $70 per share, representing meaningful upside from today's levels. Our full reports on Abbott and hundreds of other companies are available on our website.
We think a comprehensive analysis of a company's discounted cash-flow valuation, relative valuation versus industry peers, as well as an assessment of technical and momentum indicators is the best way to identify the most attractive stocks at the best time to buy. This process culminates in what we call our Valuentum Buying Index, which ranks stocks on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. If a company is undervalued both on a DCF and on a relative valuation basis and is showing improvement in technical and momentum indicators, it scores high on our scale. We think our methodology and broad coverage universe is largely responsible for the meaningful outperformance of the portfolio in our Best Ideas Newsletter.
In Abbott's case, the company scores a 6 on our scale, which is better than most of the firms in our coverage universe. Very few register high on our scale, and such a score for Abbott's reflects potential for appreciation and bullish technicals.
Our Report on Abbott Laboratories
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Investment Considerations
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Investment Highlights
Abbott Laboratories earns a ValueCreation rating of EXCELLENT, the highest possible mark on our scale. The firm has been generating economic value
for shareholders for the past few years, a track record we view very positively. Return on invested capital (excluding goodwill) has averaged 27.4% during the
past three years.
Abbott Laboratories has a good combination of strong free cash flow generation and manageable financial leverage. We expect the firm's free cash flow margin to average about 19.9% in coming years. Total debt-to-EBITDA was 2.1 last year, while debt-to-book capitalization stood at 45.8%.
The firm's share price performance has been roughly in line with that of the market during the past quarter. We'd expect the firm's stock price to converge to our fair value estimate within the next three years, if our forecasts prove accurate.
The firm sports a very nice dividend yield of 3.5%. We expect the firm to pay out about 41% of next year's earnings to shareholders as dividends.
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Economic Profit Analysis
The best measure of a firm's ability to create value for shareholders is expressed by comparing its return on invested capital (ROIC) with its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The gap or difference between ROIC and WACC is called the firm's economic profit spread. Abbott Laboratories' 3-year historical return on invested capital (without goodwill) is 27.4%, which is above the estimate of its cost of capital of 9.9%. As such, we assign the firm a ValueCreation rating of EXCELLENT. In the chart to the right, we show the probable path of ROIC in the years ahead based on the estimated volatility of key drivers behind the measure. The solid grey line reflects the most likely outcome, in our opinion, and represents the scenario that results in our fair value estimate.
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Cash Flow Analysis
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Firms that generate a free cash flow margin (free cash flow divided by total revenue) above 5% are usually considered cash cows. Abbott Laboratories' free cash flow margin has averaged about 21.3% during the past 3 years. As such, we think the firm's cash flow generation is relatively STRONG. The free cash flow measure shown above is derived by taking cash flow from operations less capital expenditures and differs from enterprise free cash flow (FCFF), which we use in deriving our fair value estimate for the company. For more information on the differences between these two measures, please visit our website at www.valuentum.com. At Abbott Laboratories, cash flow from operations increased about 24% from levels registered two years ago, while capital expenditures fell about 21% over the same time period.
Valuation Analysis
We think Abbott is worth $66 per share, which represents a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 20.8 times last year's earnings and an implied EV/EBITDA multiple of about 12.7 times last year's EBITDA. Our model reflects a compound annual revenue growth rate of 5.4% during the next five years, a pace that is lower than the firm's 3-year historical compound annual growth rate of 10.7%. Our model reflects a 5-year projected average operating margin of 24.3%, which is above Abbott Laboratories's trailing 3-year average. Beyond year 5, our valuation model assumes free cash flow will grow at an annual rate of 2.1% for the next 15 years and 3% in perpetuity. For Abbott Laboratories, our model uses a 9.9% weighted average cost of capital to discount future free cash flows.
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Margin of Safety Analysis
Our discounted cash flow process values each firm on the basis of the present value of all future free cash flows. Although we estimate the firm's fair value at about $66 per share, every company has a range of probable fair values that's created by the uncertainty of key valuation drivers (like future revenue or earnings, for example). After all, if the future was known with certainty, we wouldn't see much volatility in the markets as stocks would trade precisely at their known fair values. Our ValueRisk rating sets the margin of safety or the fair value range we assign to each stock. In the graph below, we show this probable range of fair values for Abbott Laboratories. We think the firm is attractive below $50 per share (the green line), but quite expensive above $83 per share (the red line). The prices that fall along the yellow line, which includes our fair value estimate, represent a reasonable valuation for the firm, in our opinion.
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Future Path of Fair Value
We estimate Abbott Laboratories' fair value at this point in time to be about $66 per share. As time passes, however, companies generate cash flow and pay out cash to shareholders in the form of dividends. The chart below compares the firm's current share price with the path of Abbott Laboratories's expected equity value per share over the next three years, assuming our long-term projections prove accurate. The range between the resulting downside fair value and upside fair value in Year 3 represents our best estimate of the value of the firm's shares three years hence. This range of potential outcomes is also subject to change over time, should our views on the firm's future cash flow potential change. The expected fair value of $81 per share in Year 3 represents our existing fair value per share of $66 increased at an annual rate of the firm's cost of equity less its dividend yield. The upside and downside ranges are derived in the same way, but from the upper and lower bounds of our fair value estimate range.
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Pro Forma Financial Statements
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Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
