Stock Analysis

A Look At The Fair Value Of UNID Company Ltd. (KRX:014830)

Published
KOSE:A014830

Key Insights

  • Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, UNID fair value estimate is ₩97,397
  • Current share price of ₩86,400 suggests UNID is potentially trading close to its fair value
  • Our fair value estimate is 24% lower than UNID's analyst price target of ₩128,400

How far off is UNID Company Ltd. (KRX:014830) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

See our latest analysis for UNID

Is UNID Fairly Valued?

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable 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) estimate

2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034
Levered FCF (₩, Millions) ₩52.5b ₩81.0b ₩60.8b ₩50.6b ₩45.1b ₩41.9b ₩40.2b ₩39.4b ₩39.1b ₩39.2b
Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Est @ -24.96% Est @ -16.73% Est @ -10.97% Est @ -6.93% Est @ -4.11% Est @ -2.13% Est @ -0.75% Est @ 0.22%
Present Value (₩, Millions) Discounted @ 8.3% ₩48.5k ₩69.0k ₩47.8k ₩36.8k ₩30.2k ₩26.0k ₩23.0k ₩20.8k ₩19.0k ₩17.6k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)
Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = ₩339b

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 2.5%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.3%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2034 × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = ₩39b× (1 + 2.5%) ÷ (8.3%– 2.5%) = ₩686b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= ₩686b÷ ( 1 + 8.3%)10= ₩308b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is ₩647b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of ₩86k, the company appears about fair value at a 11% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

KOSE:A014830 Discounted Cash Flow July 30th 2024

The Assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at UNID 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 accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.3%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.100. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for UNID

Strength
  • Debt is not viewed as a risk.
  • Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.
Weakness
  • Earnings declined over the past year.
  • Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Chemicals market.
Opportunity
  • Annual earnings are forecast to grow faster than the South Korean market.
  • Current share price is below our estimate of fair value.
Threat
  • Annual revenue is forecast to grow slower than the South Korean market.

Next Steps:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For UNID, we've compiled three additional items you should consider:

  1. Risks: As an example, we've found 2 warning signs for UNID that you need to consider before investing here.
  2. Future Earnings: How does A014830'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.
  3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the KOSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

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This article by Simply Wall St 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. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.