A Look At The Intrinsic Value Of Impellam Group plc (LON:IPEL)
Simply Wall St
6 min read
Key Insights
The projected fair value for Impellam Group is UK£6.26 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity
Impellam Group's UK£6.40 share price indicates it is trading at similar levels as its fair value estimate
Industry average of 5.1% suggests Impellam Group's peers are currently trading at a higher premium to fair value
Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Impellam Group plc (LON:IPEL) as an investment opportunity 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 would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.
We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last 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.
A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:
10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
Levered FCF (£, Millions)
UK£18.9m
UK£19.6m
UK£20.2m
UK£20.6m
UK£21.0m
UK£21.4m
UK£21.7m
UK£22.0m
UK£22.3m
UK£22.6m
Growth Rate Estimate Source
Est @ 4.66%
Est @ 3.61%
Est @ 2.87%
Est @ 2.35%
Est @ 1.99%
Est @ 1.74%
Est @ 1.56%
Est @ 1.44%
Est @ 1.35%
Est @ 1.29%
Present Value (£, Millions) Discounted @ 8.3%
UK£17.5
UK£16.7
UK£15.9
UK£15.0
UK£14.1
UK£13.3
UK£12.4
UK£11.6
UK£10.9
UK£10.2
("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St) Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK£137m
We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (1.2%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 8.3%.
Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK£320m÷ ( 1 + 8.3%)10= UK£144m
The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is UK£281m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of UK£6.4, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.
AIM:IPEL Discounted Cash Flow March 31st 2023
Important Assumptions
Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. 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 Impellam Group 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 1.028. 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.
Next Steps:
Whilst important, the DCF calculation 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. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. 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 Impellam Group, there are three essential factors you should further research:
Management:Have insiders been ramping up their shares to take advantage of the market's sentiment for IPEL's future outlook? Check out our management and board analysis with insights on CEO compensation and governance factors.
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 AIM every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content?Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.
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