The Cash Flow Statement
What it is
A view of how cash actually moves through a business, broken into three buckets:
- Operating — cash generated from running the business
- Investing — cash spent on (or received from) capex and acquisitions
- Financing — cash from debt, equity, or returned to shareholders
Why "Free Cash Flow" matters
Free Cash Flow (FCF) = Operating cash flow − capex. It's the cash a business produces after maintaining itself. FCF is what funds dividends, buybacks, growth, and debt repayment. The DCF model is built on it for a reason.
How Cowry uses it
The DCF engine takes a base FCF figure as its starting point. The cleaner and more consistent that FCF, the more reliable the valuation.