Free Cash Flow (Historical) Formula in Excel

Free Cash Flow (Historical) is a powerful Excel formula provided by MarketXLS. It helps you quickly measure the cash a company generates after factoring in its operational and capital expenses. By leveraging hf_Free_Cash_Flow, you can easily gauge a company’s profitability, efficiency, and operational health in a historical context.

Understanding Free Cash Flow (Historical)

• Purpose: hf_Free_Cash_Flow helps you evaluate how much cash a company has left over after covering operational costs and capital expenditures.
• Key Benefits:
  • Identifies surplus cash available for expansions, dividends, or other investments.
  • Offers insight into financial stability and operational performance.
  • Compares historical free cash flows across different reporting periods.
• When to Use:
  • Assess a company’s profitability trends over multiple quarters or years.
  • Compare free cash flow figures for different companies in your portfolio.

Syntax and Parameters

Syntax

=hf_Free_Cash_Flow(Symbol, year, [quarter], [TTM])

?? Note: The parameters in square brackets are optional.

Parameter Table

Return Value

• Returns a numeric value that represents the company’s free cash flow for the specified period.
• If the symbol is invalid or if there is a licensing issue, "NA" is returned.

? Pro Tip: Use “TTM” (Trailing Twelve Months) to analyze a rolling year’s worth of free cash flow data, which provides a more up-to-date perspective than an annual snapshot.

Error Handling

• Invalid Symbol: Returns "NA" if the ticker symbol is not recognized.
• Subscription Check: If you lack the necessary historical data subscription, it will return "NA".
• Numeric Conversion: If the returned value is non-numeric, the function gracefully returns the raw text result (often "NA").

Special Cases and Limitations

• Optional Quarter: If you skip the quarter parameter, it defaults to "1" (Q1).
• TTM Overlaps: Using "TTM" automatically factors in the trailing quarters.
• Performance: Retrieval might take longer for symbols with extensive historical data.

Examples and Usage

Below are examples illustrating how to use hf_Free_Cash_Flow in Excel with MarketXLS:

1. For a specific year:

   =hf_Free_Cash_Flow("MSFT", 2022)

   Retrieves free cash flow for Microsoft in 2022.

2. For a specific year and quarter:

   =hf_Free_Cash_Flow("MSFT", 2022, 2)

   Retrieves free cash flow for Microsoft’s Q2 of 2022.

3. With trailing twelve months (TTM):

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

   Retrieves the trailing twelve months’ free cash flow starting from Q3 2022.

4. Using last-year (ly), last-quarter (lq), or last-twelve (lt) functionality:

   • =hf_Free_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "lq")

     Retrieves free cash flow for Microsoft’s most recently reported quarter.

   • =hf_Free_Cash_Flow("MSFT", "ly-1")

     Retrieves free cash flow for the prior year before the last year.

?? Note: If you reference cells for Symbol or year, use:
• Direct cell reference:

=hf_Free_Cash_Flow(A1, A2)

• Custom date options in Excel typically do not apply to this function since the parameters focus on year and quarter. However, to insert a date-like string (though unconventional for this function), you can use:

=hf_Free_Cash_Flow(TEXT(A1, "yyyy"), TEXT(A2, "m"))

Common Questions

1. How can I use a cell reference for the symbol and year?
   Simply reference the cells containing the symbol and year:

   =hf_Free_Cash_Flow(A1, B1)

2. What if I want to analyze an index or crypto asset?
   You can pass index or crypto tickers in the same way as stock symbols:

   • For an index:

     =hf_Free_Cash_Flow("^SPX", 2022)

   • For a cryptocurrency pair:

     =hf_Free_Cash_Flow("BTCUSD:DEFAULT", "ly")

3. Why am I getting "NA"?

   • The symbol may be invalid or not covered by your subscription.
   • You may have incorrectly typed the parameter or used an unsupported timeframe.

4. Does trailing twelve months data include the current quarter?
   Using the TTM parameter sums up the latest four quarters based on your specified year and quarter. Typically, it includes the most recently disclosed data.

5. Are there any performance concerns for large data lookups?
   MarketXLS efficiently caches data. However, repeated requests for many symbols or extended histories can take slightly longer.

? Pro Tip: Combine this formula with other historical fundamental formulas (like Revenue (Historical) or Gross Profit (Historical)) to build comprehensive, time-based financial models.

Use the hf_Free_Cash_Flow function to quickly identify profit trends and make data-driven investing decisions.