Cash Flow (Historical) Formula in Excel

Get real-time insights into a company's historical cash flow directly in Excel with the MarketXLS “Cash Flow (Historical)” formula. This function helps investors, analysts, and finance professionals track and analyze money movement within a company over specified years or quarters.

Understanding Cash Flow (Historical)

• Purpose: The “Cash Flow (Historical)” formula returns a representation of the historical money flow within a company.
• Key Benefits:
  • Quickly retrieve historical cash flow for fundamental analysis.
  • Compare cash flow across different periods (years/quarters).
  • Use trailing twelve months (TTM) data for a rolling view.
• When to Use:
  • Constructing financial reports or dashboards in Excel.
  • Performing historical trend analysis of a company's cash flow.
  • Evaluating a firm’s ability to generate free cash flow over time.

Syntax and Parameters

=hf_Cash_Flow(Symbol, Year, [Quarter], [TTM])

? Pro Tip: Use custom keywords like "lq" (last quarter) or "ly" (last year) to automatically fetch dynamic periods without specifying exact years and quarters.

?? Note: If you enter an invalid symbol or the subscription license check fails, this function will return "NA".

Return Value

• Returns either a numeric cash flow value or "NA" if the symbol or parameters are invalid.
• The return format is typically a number representing the cash flow in the company’s reporting currency.

Special Cases and Limitations

• TTM: Setting the TTM parameter to "TTM" provides a rolling 12-month window from the specified quarter/year.
• Last Quarter/Year:
  • "lq", "lq-1", etc. let you query the most recent or a previous quarter.
  • "ly", "ly-1", etc. do the same for the most recent or a previous fiscal year.
• Date Handling:
  • By cell reference:

    =hf_Cash_Flow(A1, B1)

  • Direct date strings (converted appropriately in your spreadsheet if needed):

    =hf_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "2024-03-15")

  • Using Excel date functions:

    =hf_Cash_Flow("MSFT", TEXT(A1,"yyyy-mm-dd"))

  (Note: This function inherently expects a year or year-keyword. Ensure your date references convert to valid year/quarter parameters.)

Performance Considerations

• Multiple Calls: Excessive simultaneous calls can slow Excel performance. Consider referencing results in helper cells where possible.
• Caching: MarketXLS may cache data to improve speed, but large datasets or frequent updates might impact retrieval times.

Examples and Usage

Below are a few practical illustrations of how you can leverage the “Cash Flow (Historical)” formula:

1. Basic Annual Cash Flow:

   =hf_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "2022")

   Returns Microsoft’s cash flow for the year 2022.

2. Quarterly Cash Flow:

   =hf_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "2022", 2)

   Fetches the Q2 2022 cash flow for Microsoft.

3. Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) Cash Flow:

   =hf_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "2022", 3, "TTM")

   Returns cash flow for the trailing twelve months from Q3 2022.

4. Dynamic Last Quarter:

   =hf_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "lq")

   Automatically retrieves the most recent known quarter’s cash flow.

5. Symbol Variations:

   • Regular symbols:

     =hf_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "2022")

   • Indices:

     =hf_Cash_Flow("^SPX", "ly")

   • Options:

     =hf_Cash_Flow("@MSFT 110122C00020000", "lq")

   • Crypto:

     =hf_Cash_Flow("BTCUSD:DEFAULT", "ly-1")

Common Questions

1. Why am I getting “NA” for certain quarters or years?

   • Possible reasons include an invalid symbol, missing data for that period, or an expired/incorrect MarketXLS license.

2. How do I compare multiple years or quarters side by side?

   • Create multiple columns in Excel and apply hf_Cash_Flow() to each year or quarter respectively.

3. Is there a way to reference the current date automatically?

   • Yes, you can dynamically create the year or quarter reference using Excel functions like YEAR(TODAY()) or a formula that calculates the current quarter.

4. How do I include this data in my financial dashboard?

   • Use these formula outputs in pivot tables, charts, or practical dashboards by referencing cells containing hf_Cash_Flow() results.

?? Note: For more details on related historical fundamentals, check out other MarketXLS formulas like Revenue (Historical), Cost Of Revenue (Historical), Gross Profit (Historical), and more.