Foundations and Trends® in Accounting > Vol 4 > Issue 1

Equity Valuation

By Peter O. Christensen, School of Economics and Management, Aarhus University, Denmark, pochristensen@econ.au.dk | Gerald A. Feltham, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada, gfeltham@shaw.ca

 
Suggested Citation
Peter O. Christensen and Gerald A. Feltham (2009), "Equity Valuation", Foundations and TrendsĀ® in Accounting: Vol. 4: No. 1, pp 1-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/1400000008

Publication Date: 13 Oct 2009
© 2009 P. O. Christensen and G. A. Feltham
 
Subjects
Financial statement analysis and equity valuation
 
Keywords
ValuationCost of capitalAsset pricing theoryAccountingFinanceMicroeconomics
 

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In this article:
1. Introduction 
2. Risk-adjusted Discount Rates 
3. Multi-period Asset Pricing Theory and Accounting Relations 
4. An Accounting-Based Multi-period Equity Valuation Model 
5. Equity Valuation with HARA Utility 
Appendix A. Proof of Theorems 
Appendix B. Habit Formation 
Appendix C. Risk-Adjusted Expected Cash Flows and Certainty Equivalents 
References 

Abstract

We review and critically examine the standard approach to equity valuation using a constant risk-adjusted cost of capital, and we develop a new valuation approach discounting risk-adjusted fundamentals, such as expected free cash flows and residual operating income, using nominal zero-coupon interest rates. We show that standard estimates of the cost of capital, based on historical stock returns, are likely to be a significantly biased measure of the firm's cost of capital, but also that the bias is almost impossible to quantify empirically. The new approach recognizes that, in practice, interest rates, expected equity returns, and inflation rates are all stochastic. We explicitly characterize the risk-adjustments to the fundamentals in an equilibrium setting. We show how the term structure of risk-adjustments depends on both the time-series properties of the free cash flows and the accounting policy. Growth, persistence, and mean reversion of residual operating income created by competition in the product markets or by the accounting policy are key determinants of the term structure of risk-adjustments.

DOI:10.1561/1400000008
ISBN: 978-1-60198-272-8
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ISBN: 978-1-60198-273-5
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Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. Risk-adjusted Discount Rates
3. Multi-period Asset Pricing Theory and Accounting Relations
4. An Accounting-based Multi-period Equity Valuation Model
5. Equity Valuation with HARA Utility
Appendix A. Proof of Theorems
Appendix B. Habit Formation
Appendix C. Risk-adjusted Expected Cash Flows and Certainty Equivalents
References

Equity Valuation

Equity Valuation reviews and critically examines the standard approach to equity valuation using a constant risk-adjusted cost of capital and develops a new valuation approach discounting risk-adjusted fundamentals using nominal zero-coupon interest rates.

Equity Valuation is organized as follows: Chapter 2 (Risk-adjusted Discount Rates) reviews standard valuation models based on risk-adjusted discount rates. Chapter 3 (Multi-period Asset Pricing Theory and Accounting Relations) examines key results from multi-period asset pricing theory in discrete-time, and shows how equity valuation models can equivalently be based on free cash flows or accrual accounting numbers. Based on these results, the authors derive an accounting-based multi-period equity valuation model presented in Chapter 4 (An Accounting-based Multi-period Equity Valuation Model) with equilibrium risk-adjustments determined by prices of aggregate consumption claims. Chapter 5 (Equity Valuation with HARA Utility) includes a general equilibrium analysis of a setting in which the investors have HARA utility, and aggregate consumption and residual operating income are jointly normally distributed. A set of appendices follows including Appendix B that extends the setting to preferences with external habit formation (which recently has gained popularity in asset pricing theory), and Appendix C, which discusses the relationship between risk-adjusted expected cash flows and certainty equivalents.

 
ACC-008