5.14 Example Wal-Mart

Following section 5.2 we bring in the Consolidated Balance Sheet for WMT.  The key elements of the screen are circled below for this example.  That is we are working with the 30 March 2010 10-K and Wal-Marts Consolidated Balance Sheets for the years ending January 31, 2010 and 2009.

 

Computation of Net Operating Assets Jan 31, 2010

Note to the above 10-K:  Following FASB Statement 160 (ASC 810-10) the FASB has recently (beginning on or after December 15, 2008) required that “non-controlling interests” are part of equity in a consolidated reporting entity.  This is a departure from the previous practice of treating minority interests as a mezzanine item between liabilities and equity.   This has resulted from the convergence process between US GAAP and IFRS and in particular aligns reporting of non-controlling interests with the requirements in IAS27.

This convergence adopts a single method of accounting for economically similar transactions. It eliminates the need to apply purchase accounting to a parent’s acquisition of non-controlling ownership interests in a subsidiary, and thus eliminates the need to value the assets and liabilities of the subsidiary on the date that each additional interest is acquired.

In the numbers below we will keep non-controlling interests in the equity section.  Prior to the latest requirements of statement 160 some analysts may have included non-controlling interests in Total Liabilities (e.g., via Total Assets – Equity type of calculation) and you can easily edit any of the numbers in the calculator if desired.

Working from Wal-Marts 10-K

Shares Issued and Outstanding Jan 31, 2010 = 3,786

Total Assets = 170,706 (2009), 163,429 (2008)

Cash and Cash Equivalents = 7,907 (2009), 7,275 (2008)

Operating Assets = 170,706 – 7,907 = 162,799 (2009), 163,429 – 7,275 = 156,154 (2008)

Adjusted Liabilities2009  = Total Liabilities and Equity2009 – Total Equity2009 = (170,706 – 72,929) – (33,231 + 4,050 + 523) = $59,973

Adjusted Liabilities2008  = Total Liabilities and Equity2008 – Total Equity2008 = (163,429 – 67,079) – (31,349 + 5,848 + 1,506) = $57,647

Net Operating Assets2009 = 162,799 – 59,973 = 102,826

Net Operating Assets2008 = 156,154 – 57,647 = 98,507

Aggregate Accruals = 102,826 – 98,507 = 4,319

Average Net Operating Assets = (102,826 + 98,507)/2 = 100,666.5

Accruals Ratio (Balance Sheet) = 4,319/100,666.5 = 0.0429 or 4.3%

Online you can verify the above numbers from the Consolidated Balance Sheet as in the example below:

Aggregate Accruals

Aggregate Accruals2009 = Net Income2009 – (Cash Flows from Operations + Cash Flows from Investments)

Refer to the Consolidated Cash Flow Statement for Wal-Mart.  This is in the LHS of the screen below:

The Aggregate Accruals for 2009 are:  14,848 – (26,249 + (11,620)) = 298

Accruals Ratio (Cash Flow Statement) = 298/100,666.5 = 0.00296

Finally we can construct the Percent Operating Accruals for Wal-Mart as follows:

Percent Operating Accruals = (Net Income – Cash from Operations)/Net Income

Percent Operating Accruals = (14,848 – 26,249)/14,848 = -0.76785

In other words, Wal-Mart has negative accruals which is a very positive signal for underlying strength of future earnings given the empirical findings from Hafzalla, Lundholm and Winkel (2010).  You can verify these numbers from the statements below:

 

In other words, Wal-Mart’s earnings would be judged to be of high quality given the above ratios. 

But how can you determine what is high versus low quality?

The answer to this is an empirical issue that is often handled by forming portfolios ranked in terms of the ratios.  Valuation Tutor lets you do this directly by clicking on Calculate All and then sorting the results provided in the grid that automatically pops up.  This lets you compare important ratios by SIC code, industry or even stock index classification.  In the next section we will first introduce Valuation Tutor’s Earnings’ Quality calculator and use it to reconcile the numbers for P&G.  We will then extend the use of this calculator to see how to develop your professional judgment in relation to the numbers produced by exploiting the feature “Calculate All.”