Valuation (finance)

In finance, valuation is the process of estimating the market value of a financial asset or liability. Valuations can be done on assets (for example, investments in marketable securities such as stocks, options, business enterprises, or intangible assets such as patents and trademarks) or on liabilities (e.g., Bonds issued by a company). Valuations are required in many contexts including investment analysis, capital budgeting, merger and acquisition transactions, financial reporting, taxable events to determine the proper tax liability, and in litigation.

Asset valuation

Valuation of financial assets is done using one or more of these types of models:

Relative value models determine the value based on the market prices of similar assets.
Absolute value models determine the value by estimating the expected future earnings from owning the asset discounted to their present value.
Option pricing models are used for certain types of financial assets (e.g., warrants, put options, call options, employee stock options, investments with embedded options such as a callable bond) and are a complex present value model. The most common option pricing models are the Black-Scholes-Merton models and lattice models.

Common terms for the value of an asset or liability are fair market value, fair value, and intrinsic value. The meanings of these terms differ. The most common term is fair market value defined as the cash price an item would sell for between a willing buyer and willing seller assuming they both have knowledge of the relevant facts and they have no compulsion to buy or sell. Fair value is used in different contexts and has multiple meanings. Some people use the term to mean the same thing as fair market value. Fair value is also a term used in accounting and law. It is used in generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for financial reporting and in law in shareholder rights legal statutes. In these cases, fair value is defined in the accounting literature or the law, respectively. Fair value may be different from fair market value in the accounting and legal contexts. Intrinsic value is an asset's true value regardless of the market price. When an analyst determines a stock's intrinsic value is greater than its market price, the analyst issues a "buy" recommendation and vice versa. The intrinsic value may be a matter of personal opinion and vary among individual analysts.

For a comprehensive discussion on financial valuation see Aswath Damodaran, Investment Valuation, (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

Business valuation

Businesses or fractional interests in businesses may be valued for various purposes such as mergers and acquisitions, sale of securities, and taxable events. An accurate valuation of privately-owned companies largely depends on the reliability of the company's financial information. Public company financial statements are audited by Certified Public Accountants (US) or Chartered Accountants (UK) and overseen by a government regulator. Private companies do not have government oversight and are generally not required to have their financial statements audited. Private company financial statements are commonly prepared to minimize taxes by lowering taxable income and the financial information may not be accurate. Public companies tend to want higher earnings to increase their share prices. Inaccurate financial information can lead to over- and undervaluation. In an acquisition, due diligence is commonly performed by the buyer to validate the representations made by the seller.

Financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) usually express the values of the assets at their costs rather than their higher market values. For example, the balance sheet would reflect a piece of land at the purchase price rather than its appreciated value. Certain types of assets and liabilities such as securities held for sale will be reflected at their market values rather than their costs so that the company's financial information is more meaningful. This process is called "mark-to-market" but is subject to manager bias who may be compensated more with higher values.

Business valuation methods

Discounted cash flows method

A method for determining the current value of a company using future cash flows adjusted for time value. The future cash flow set is made up the cash flows within the determined forecast period and a continuing value that represents the cash flow stream after the forecast period.

Multiples method

A method for determining the current value of a company by example ratio’s of relevant peer groups. Most widely used multiple is the Price Earnings Ratio (PER) of stocks in a similar industry. Using the average of multiple PER’s improves reliability but it can still be necessary to correct the PER for current market conditions.

Usage

In finance, valuation analysis is required for many reasons including tax assessment, wills and estates, divorce settlements, business analysis, and basic bookkeeping and accounting. Since the value of things fluctate over time, valuations are as of a specific date e.g., the end of the accounting quarter or year. They may alternatively be mark-to-market estimates of the current value of assets or liabilities as of this minute or this day for the purposes of managing portfolios and associated financial risk (for example, within large financial firms including investment banks and stockbrokers).

Some balance sheet items are much easier to value than others. Publicly traded stocks and bonds have prices that are quoted frequently and readily available. Other assets are hard to value. For instance, private firms that have no frequently quoted price. Additionally financial instruments that have prices that are partly dependent on theoretical models of one kind or another are difficult to value. For example, options are generally valued using the Black-Scholes model while the liabilities of life assurance firms are valued using the theory of present value.

It is possible and conventional for financial professionals to make their own estimates of the valuations of assets or liabilities that they are interested in, and their calculations are of various kinds including analyses of companies that focus on price-to-book, price-to-earnings, price-to-cashflow and present value calculations, and analyses of bonds that focuses on credit ratings, for example, assessments of default risk, risk premium and levels of real interest rates. All of these approaches may be thought of as creating estimates of value that compete for credibility with the prevailing share or bond prices, where applicable, and may or may not result in buying or selling by market participants.

It is very important to note that valuation is more an art than a science because it requires judgement:

There are very different situations and purposes in which you value an asset (e.g. company in distress, tax purposes, mergers & acquisitions, quarterly reporting). In turn this requires different methods or a different interpretation of the same method each time.
All valuation models and methods have their limitations (e.g., mathematical, complexity, simplicity, comparability) and could be widely criticized. As a general rule the valuation models are most useful when you use the same valuation method as the "partner" you are interacting with. Mostly the method used is industry or purpose specific;
In all valuation models there are a great number of assumptions that need to be made and things might not turn out the way you expect. Your best way out of that is to be able to explain and stand for each assumption you make;

When a valuation is prepared all assumptions should be clearly stated, especially the context. It is improper, for example, to value a going concern, based on an assumption that it is going out of business, since then only a salvage value remains.

Valuation of mining projects

In mining, valuation is the process of determining the value or worth of a mining property.

Mining valuations are sometimes required for IPO's, fairness opinions, litigation, mergers & acquisitions and shareholder related matters.

In valuation of a mining project or mining property, fair market value is the standard of value to be used. The CIMVal Standards are a recognised standard for valuation of mining projects and is also recognised by the Toronto Stock Exchange (Venture). The standards spearheaded by Spence & Roscoe, stress the use of the cost approach, market approach and the income approach, depending on the stage of development of the mining property or project.

Asset pricing models

See also Modern portfolio theory

Related Material

Financial markets | Financial economics

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