Calculating The Intrinsic Value Of Domain Holdings Australia Limited (ASX:DHG)

January 10, 2019

How far off is Domain Holdings Australia Limited (ASX:DHG) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, I am going to take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. I will be using the Discounted Cash Flows (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model. Please also note that this article was written in January 2019 so be sure check out the updated calculation by following the link below.

See our latest analysis for Domain Holdings Australia

What's the value?

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with we have to get estimates of the next five years of cash flows. For this I used the consensus of the analysts covering the stock, as you can see below. I then discount this to its value today and sum up the total to get the present value of these cash flows.

5-year cash flow forecast

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Levered FCF (A$, Millions)	A$49.00	A$57.67	A$66.00	A$74.57	A$96.00
Source	Analyst x3	Analyst x3	Analyst x2	Analyst x2	Analyst x1
Present Value Discounted @ 8.55%	A$45.14	A$48.94	A$51.59	A$53.70	A$63.68

Present Value of 5-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= AU$263m

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of the GDP. In this case I have used the 10-year government bond rate (2.8%). In the same way as with the 5-year 'growth' period, we discount this to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.6%.

Terminal Value (TV) = FCF₂₀₂₃ × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = AU$96m × (1 + 2.8%) ÷ (8.6% – 2.8%) = AU$1.7b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV) = TV / (1 + r)⁵ = AU$1.7b ÷ ( 1 + 8.6%)⁵ = AU$1.1b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the cash flows, which in this case is AU$1.4b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. If the stock is an depositary receipt (represents a specified number of shares in a foreign corporation) or ADR then we use the equivalent number. This results in an intrinsic value of A$2.4. Relative to the current share price of A$2.25, the stock is about right, perhaps slightly undervalued at a 6.4% discount to what it is available for right now.

ASX:DHG Intrinsic Value Export January 11th 19

Important assumptions

I'd like to point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with my inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. Because we are looking at Domain Holdings Australia as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighed average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation I've used 8.6%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. This is derived from the Bottom-Up Beta method based on comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. For DHG, I've put together three fundamental aspects you should look at:

Financial Health: Does DHG have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.
Future Earnings: How does DHG'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.
Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of DHG? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St does a DCF calculation for every AU stock every 6 hours, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

Simply Wall St analyst Simply Wall St and Simply Wall St have no position in any of the companies mentioned. This article 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.