HNI Corporation (NYSE:HNI): The Yield That Matters The Most
HNI Corporation (NYSE:HNI) shareholders, and potential investors, need to understand how much cash the business makes from its core operational activities, as well as how much is invested back into the business. What is left after investment, determines the value of the stock since this cash flow technically belongs to investors of the company. I will take you through HNI’s cash flow health and the risk-return concept based on the stock’s cash flow yield, using the most recent financial data. This will help you think about the company from a cash perspective, which is a crucial factor to investing.
See our latest analysis for HNI
Is HNI generating enough cash?
HNI’s free cash flow (FCF) is the level of cash flow the business generates from its operational activities, after it reinvests in the company as capital expenditure. This type of expense is needed for HNI to continue to grow, or at least, maintain its current operations.
The two ways to assess whether HNI’s FCF is sufficient, is to compare the FCF yield to the market index yield, as well as determine whether the top-line operating cash flows will continue to grow.
Free Cash Flow = Operating Cash Flows – Net Capital Expenditure
Free Cash Flow Yield = Free Cash Flow / Enterprise Value
where Enterprise Value = Market Capitalisation + Net Debt
Along with a positive operating cash flow, HNI also generates a positive free cash flow. However, the yield of 4.49% is not sufficient to compensate for the level of risk investors are taking on. This is because HNI’s yield is well-below the market yield, in addition to serving higher risk compared to the well-diversified market index.
Does HNI have a favourable cash flow trend?
Another important consideration is whether this return is likely to be maintained over the next couple of years. We can gauge this by looking at HNI’s expected operating cash flows. In the next few years, the company is expected to grow its cash from operations at a double-digit rate of 19%, ramping up from its current levels of US$191m to US$227m in three years’ time. Although this seems impressive, breaking down into year-on-year growth rates, HNI’s operating cash flow growth is expected to decline from a rate of 5.0% in the upcoming year, to 2.0% by the end of the third year. However the overall picture seems encouraging, should capital expenditure levels maintain at an appropriate level.
Next Steps:
Although its positive operating cash flow, and high future growth, is appealing, the low free cash flow yield is unattractive. This is because you would be better compensated in terms of cash yield, by investing in the market index, as well as take on lower diversification risk. Now you know to keep cash flows in mind, I recommend you continue to research HNI to get a better picture of the company by looking at:
Valuation: What is HNI worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether HNI is currently mispriced by the market.
Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on HNI’s board and the CEO’s back ground.
Other High-Performing Stocks: If you believe you should cushion your portfolio with something less risky, scroll through our free list of these great stocks here.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
