Cash Flow Per Share

Definition: A ratio of the cash generated divided by the number of outstanding shares.

In Depth Description:
A measure of a firm’s financial strength, calculated as:

Cash Flow Per Share = (Operating Cash Flow – Preferred Dividends) / Common Shares Outstanding.

Cash flow per share shows the after-tax earnings plus depreciation, on a per share basis. Many financial analysts place more emphasis on the cash flow per share value than on earnings per share values. While an earnings per share value can be easily manipulated to appear more positive than it really is, therefore putting its reliability in question, cash is more difficult to alter, resulting in what some analysts believe is a more accurate value of the strength and sustainability of a particular business model.