How far Jinke Smart Services Group Co., Ltd. (HKG:9666) far from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we will examine whether the stock price is fair by estimating the company’s future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. Patterns like these may seem beyond a layman’s comprehension, but they’re pretty easy to follow.

Businesses can be valued in many ways, which is why we emphasize that a DCF is not perfect for all situations. If you want to know more about discounted cash flow, the rationale for this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis template.

Check out our latest analysis for Jinke Smart Services Group

What is the estimated valuation?

We will use a two-stage DCF model which, as the name suggests, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is usually a period of higher growth which stabilizes towards the terminal value, captured in the second period of “sustained growth”. In the first step, we need to estimate the company’s cash flow over the next ten years. Wherever possible, we use analysts’ estimates, but where these are not available, we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the latest estimate or reported value. We assume that companies with decreasing free cash flow will slow their rate of contraction and companies with increasing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow during this period. We do this to reflect the fact that growth tends to slow more in early years than in later years.

Generally, we assume that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today’s value:

10-Year Free Cash Flow (FCF) Forecast

(“East” = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)
10-year discounted cash flow (PVCF) = CN¥15b

We now need to calculate the terminal value, which represents all future cash flows after this ten-year period. For a number of reasons, a very conservative growth rate is used which cannot exceed that of a country’s GDP growth. In this case, we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (1.5%) to estimate future growth. Similar to the 10-year “growth” period, we discount future cash flows to present value, using a cost of equity of 6.9%.

Terminal value (TV)= FCF₂₀₃₁ × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = CN¥2.8b × (1 + 1.5%) ÷ (6.9%–1.5%) = CN¥53b

Present value of terminal value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)^ten= CN¥53b÷ ( 1 + 6.9%)^ten= CN¥27b

The total value is the sum of the cash flows for the next ten years plus the present terminal value, which gives the total equity value, which in this case is 42 billion Canadian yen. In the last step, we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of HK$41.4, the company looks quite undervalued at a 48% discount to the current share price. Remember though that this is only a rough estimate, and like any complex formula – trash in, trash out.

The hypotheses

Now, the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and, of course, the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own assessment of a company’s future performance, so try the math yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not take into account the possible cyclicality of an industry or the future capital needs of a company, so it does not give a complete picture of a company’s potential performance. Since we consider Jinke Smart Services Group 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 takes debt into account. In this calculation, we used 6.9%, which is based on a leveraged beta of 1.089. Beta is a measure of a stock’s volatility relative to the market as a whole. We derive our beta from the average industry beta of broadly comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable company.

Let’s move on :

While important, calculating DCF shouldn’t be the only metric to consider when researching a business. It is not possible to obtain an infallible valuation with a DCF model. Rather, it should be seen as a guide to “what assumptions must be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?” For example, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can significantly change the overall result. Why is the stock price below intrinsic value? For Jinke Smart Services Group, there are three relevant aspects that you should consider in more detail:

1. Risks: For example, we spotted 1 warning sign for Jinke Smart Services Group you should be aware.
2. Future earnings: How does the growth rate of 9666 compare to its peers and the market in general? Dive deeper into the analyst consensus figure for the coming years by interacting with our free analyst growth forecast chart.
3. Other strong companies: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are essential to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with strong trading fundamentals to see if there are any other companies you may not have considered!

PS. The Simply Wall St app performs an updated cash flow assessment for each SEHK stock every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks, search here.

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This Simply Wall St article is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell stocks and does not take into account your objectives or financial situation. Our goal is to bring you targeted long-term analysis based on fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not take into account the latest announcements from price-sensitive companies or qualitative materials. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.