Cash flow statement - operating cash flow

Research
1

In the line items - if I add up the 8 elements/functions before OperCashFl should my total be equal to OperCashFl? I’m not seeing equality. The public screen is named delme1. Are we missing some compustat items? Namely SPPIV PRV RV FOPO. For completeness shouldn’t OtherWCChg pick up missing compustat items. I’m doing a cash flow calculation for MSFT and I need the following line items shown on their operating activities.

other current assets
other long-term assets
accounts payable
unearned revenue
other current liabilities
other long-term liabilities

I realize that some of these may not map neatly onto compustat codes.

Alternatively, I could derive the figure that I want using OperCashFl if P123 had the following 2 line items (again from MSFT cash flow statement).
stock based compensation expense
net recognized gain on investments and derivatives

I am trying to duplicate the calculations shown by Prof. Damodaran shown here:

Mark

Run my screen against the universe = dow 30 and you will see some N/As in the screen factors report even though I have ZERONA set for all parameters.

2

There are two major problems here.

  1. Our agreement with FactSet limits us to a certain number of line items, so there are some that are missing.
  2. One item, at least, is mislabeled: ff_wkcap_chg (OtherWCChg) is actually the sum of all working capital changes. It is not the same as AOLOCH, despite what the line items spreadsheet says.

(I’m assuming you’re referencing our line item chart at https://www.portfolio123.com/doc/side_help_item.jsp?id=63.)

For MSFT, NetIncCFStmtA + DepaMortCFA + OtherWCChgA comes very close to OperCashFlA. But, as you point out, we don’t have an item for stock-based compensation. I’m not really sure whether “other operating activities” falls under working capital changes.

If you wanted to calculate the change in working capital item by item, you could probably do so using annual and previous year figures from the balance sheet. But we really don’t offer every item you need to calculate operating cash flow.

3

Thank you Yuval. I’m heading over to your blog entry for further free cash flow investigation.

I am finding many disparate descriptions under Cash Flow Statement - Operating Activities in the 10-Ks I am reviewing.
Do you have any insight on how the analysts at compustat are instructed on how to map these disparities to their line items? All I have is COMPUSTAT (Global) Data Guide (2002).pdf

Mark