Operating Cash Flow (OCF) is the cash generated by a company's core business operations, before capital expenditures. It is the starting point for calculating free cash flow and serves as a measure of a company's ability to self-fund growth — a critical input for DCF stock valuation.
A company reports net income of $80M, adds back $20M in depreciation, and has a $5M increase in working capital. OCF = $80M + $20M − $5M = $95M. Subtracting $25M in capex gives free cash flow of $70M, which feeds into stock valuation.
OCF is harder to manipulate than net income and reveals whether reported earnings are backed by actual cash. In stock valuation, consistently strong OCF that converts to free cash flow signals business quality. A wide gap between net income and OCF is a red flag.
MiniValuator auto-fills operating cash flow from financial statements when you enter a ticker. It uses OCF minus capex to derive the FCF starting point for the DCF stock valuation model.
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