Valuation (finance)

In finance, valuation is the process of estimating the market value of a financial asset or liability. Valuations can be done on assets (for example, investments in marketable securities such as stocks, options, business enterprises, or intangible assets such as patents and trademarks) or on liabilities (e.g., Bonds issued by a company). Valuations are required in many contexts including investment analysis, capital budgeting, merger and acquisition transactions, financial reporting, taxable events to determine the proper tax liability, and in litigation.

Valuation overview

Valuation of financial assets is done using one or more of these types of models:

Relative value models determine the value based on the market prices of similar assets.
Absolute value models determine the value by estimating the expected future earnings from owning the asset discounted to their present value.
Option pricing models are used for certain types of financial assets (e.g., warrants, put options, call options, employee stock options, investments with embedded options such as a callable bond) and are a complex present value model. The most common option pricing models are the Black-Scholes-Merton models and lattice models.

Common terms for the value of an asset or liability are fair market value, fair value, and intrinsic value. The meanings of these terms differ. The most common term is fair market value defined as the cash price an item would sell for between a willing buyer and willing seller assuming they both have knowledge of the relevant facts and they have no compulsion to buy or sell. Fair value is used in different contexts and has multiple meanings. Some people use the term to mean the same thing as fair market value. Fair value is also a term used in accounting and law. It is used in generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for financial reporting and in law in shareholder rights legal statutes. In these cases, fair value is defined in the accounting literature or the law, respectively. Fair value may be different from fair market value in the accounting and legal contexts. Intrinsic value is an asset's true value regardless of the market price. When an analyst determines a stock's intrinsic value is greater than its market price, the analyst issues a "buy" recommendation and vice versa. The determination of intrinsic value may be subject to personal opinion and vary among individual analysts. For a comprehensive discussion on financial valuation see Aswath Damodaran, Investment Valuation, (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

Business valuation

Businesses or fractional interests in businesses may be valued for various purposes such as mergers and acquisitions, sale of securities, and taxable events. An accurate valuation of privately owned companies largely depends on the reliability of the company's financial information. Public company financial statements are audited by Certified Public Accountants (US), Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) or Chartered Accountants (UK and Canada) and overseen by a government regulator. Private companies do not have government oversight and are generally not required to have their financial statements audited. Private company financial statements are commonly prepared to minimize taxes by lowering taxable income and the financial information may not be accurate. Public companies tend to want higher earnings to increase their share prices. Inaccurate financial information can lead to over- and undervaluation. In an acquisition, due diligence is commonly performed by the buyer to validate the representations made by the seller.

Financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) usually express the values of the assets at their costs rather than their higher market values. For example, the balance sheet would reflect a piece of land at the purchase price rather than its appreciated value. Certain types of assets and liabilities such as securities held for sale will be reflected at their market values rather than their costs so that the company's financial information is more meaningful. This process is called "mark-to-market" but is subject to manager bias who may be compensated more with higher values. An extreme example of a company taking advantage of mark-to-market accounting to pump their own share price was Enron.

Main business valuation methods

Discounted cash flows method

Main article: Valuation discounted cash flows

This method determines the value of a firm based on all of its expected future cash flows discounted to the present (i.e., the present value). The discount is based on an opportunity cost of capital, which is sometimes called a discount rate, and is expressed as a percentage. The opportunity cost is estimated using a relation of risk and return. The more risky the firm, the more return investors expect. Therefore, an investor's required rate of return for investing capital is higher when a firm has more risks. Furthermore, firms that are more risky have a lower value than safer ones, all other things being equal.

Guideline companies method

Main article: Valuation using price multiples

This method determines the value of a firm by observing the prices of similar companies (guideline companies) that sold in the market. Those sales could be shares of stock or sales of entire firms. The observed prices serve as valuation benchmarks. From the prices, one calculates price multiples such as the price-to-earnings or price-to-book value ratios. Next, one or more price multiples are used to value the firm. For example, the average price-to-earnings multiple of the guideline companies is applied to the subject firm's earnings to estimate its value.

Many price multiples can be calculated. Most are based on a financial statement element such as a firm's earnings (price-to-earnings) or book value (price-to-book value) but multiples can be based on other factors such as price-per-subscriber.

Usage

In finance, valuation analysis is required for many reasons including tax assessment, wills and estates, divorce settlements, business analysis, and basic bookkeeping and accounting. Since the value of things fluctuates over time, valuations are as of a specific date e.g., the end of the accounting quarter or year. They may alternatively be mark-to-market estimates of the current value of assets or liabilities as of this minute or this day for the purposes of managing portfolios and associated financial risk (for example, within large financial firms including investment banks and stockbrokers).

Some balance sheet items are much easier to value than others. Publicly traded stocks and bonds have prices that are quoted frequently and readily available. Other assets are harder to value. For instance, private firms that have no frequently quoted price. Additionally, financial instruments that have prices that are partly dependent on theoretical models of one kind or another are difficult to value. For example, options are generally valued using the Black-Scholes model while the liabilities of life assurance firms are valued using the theory of present value. Intangible business assets, like goodwill and intellectual property, are open to a wide range of value interpretations.

It is possible and conventional for financial professionals to make their own estimates of the valuations of assets or liabilities that they are interested in. Their calculations are of various kinds including analyses of companies that focus on price-to-book, price-to-earnings, price-to-cashflow and present value calculations, and analyses of bonds that focus on credit ratings, assessments of default risk, risk premia and levels of real interest rates. All of these approaches may be thought of as creating estimates of value that compete for credibility with the prevailing share or bond prices, where applicable, and may or may not result in buying or selling by market participants. Where the valuation is for the purpose of a merger or acquisition the respective businesses make available further detailed financial information, usually on the completion of a Non-disclosure agreement.

It is very important to note that valuation is more an art than a science because it requires judgement:

There are very different situations and purposes in which you value an asset (e.g. company in distress, tax purposes, mergers & acquisitions, quarterly reporting). In turn this requires different methods or a different interpretation of the same method each time.
All valuation models and methods have their limitations (e.g., mathematical, complexity, simplicity, comparability) and could be widely criticized. As a general rule the valuation models are most useful when you use the same valuation method as the "partner" you are interacting with. Mostly the method used is industry or purpose specific;
The quality of some of the input data may vary widely
In all valuation models there are a great number of assumptions that need to be made and things might not turn out the way you expect. Your best way out of that is to be able to explain and stand for each assumption you make;

When a valuation is prepared all assumptions should be clearly stated, especially the context. It is improper, for example, to value a going concern, based on an assumption that it is going out of business, since then only a salvage value remains.

Valuation of intangible assets

Valuation models can be used to value intangible assets such as patents, copyrights, software, trade secrets, and customer relationships. Since few sales of benchmark intangible assets can ever be observed, one often values these sorts of assets using either a present value model or estimating the costs to recreate it. Regardless of the method, the process is often time consuming and costly.

Valuations of intangible assets are often necessary for financial reporting and intellectual property transactions.

Stock markets give indirectly an estimate of a corporation's intangible asset value. It can be reckoned as the difference between its market capitalisation and its book value (by including only hard assets in it).

There have been several new tools developed recently aiding in the valuation of intellectual property. The 25% Rule, Monte Carlo Analysis, and Derivative Revenue Model (based on license revenue) are just a few of these tools. Also, traditional methods such as Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, and Discounted Cash Flow can also be used. However, these do not take into account the "book value", or "pre-revenue" asset value of non income producing intellectual property. With the negotiability and transferability of intellectual property being liberalized by court decsions in the 1990's, several valuation specialists and merchant banking organizations have taken up valuation and market making in intellecutual property. Essentially, treating intellectual propery instruments as another asset class for investor portfolios and treating them more like securities. Several firms are prevalent in this field, Ocean Tomo of Chicago, Intellectual Ventures in Seattle, and Crais Management Group, LLC in New Orleans. They have initiated auctions of intellectual property blocks. This some have done as a percursor to their plans to create a "stock market" for intellectual property. Patents and trademarks would be the dominant form of security traded on these exchanges. To have an open market for intellectual property would create a more uniform and transparent form of IP valuation. The "Bid" and "Ask" system, many believe, is the most efficient form of valuing an asset. A "stock exchange" for intellectual property would change the face of intellectual property valuation.

Valuation of mining projects

In mining, valuation is the process of determining the value or worth of a mining property.

Mining valuations are sometimes required for IPO's, fairness opinions, litigation, mergers & acquisitions and shareholder related matters.

In valuation of a mining project or mining property, fair market value is the standard of value to be used. The CIMVal Standards are a recognised standard for valuation of mining projects and is also recognised by the Toronto Stock Exchange (Venture). The standards spearheaded by Spence & Roscoe, stress the use of the cost approach, market approach and the income approach, depending on the stage of development of the mining property or project.