All About EVA
The Basic and the foremost goal of all companies is to create value for the shareholder. Eva helps in many companies is practised to achieve this target .
What Is EVA?
EVA is a performance metric that calculates the creation of shareholder value, but it distinguishes itself from traditional financial performance metrics such as net profit and earnings per share (EPS). EVA is the calculation of what profits remain after the costs of a company’s capital – both debt and equity – are deducted from operating profit. The idea is simple but rigorous: true profit should account for the cost of capital.
In other words, EVA charges the company rent for tying up investors’ cash to support operations. There is a hidden opportunity cost that goes to investors to compensate them for forfeiting the use of their own cash. EVA captures this hidden cost of capital that conventional measures ignore.
The Calculation
There are four steps in the calculation of EVA:
1. Calculate Net Operating Profit After Tax (NOPAT)
2. Calculate Total Invested Capital (TC)
3. Determine a Cost of Capital (WACC)
4. Calculate EVA = NOPAT – WACC% * (TC)
The steps appear straightforward and simple, but looks can be deceiving. For starters, NOPAT hardly represents a reliable indicator of shareholder wealth. NOPAT might show profitability according to the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but standard accounting profits rarely reflect the amount of cash left at year end for shareholders. According to Stern Stewart, literally dozens of adjustments to earnings and balance sheets – in areas like R&D, inventory, costing, depreciation and amortization of goodwill – must be made before the calculation of standard accounting profit can be used to calculate EVA.
That said, if carried out consistently, EVA should help us identify the best investments, that is, the companies that generate more wealth than their rivals. All other things being equal, firms with high EVAs should over time outperform others with lower or negative EVAs.
But the actual EVA level matters less than the change in the level. According to research conducted by Stern Stewart, EVA is a critical driver of a company’s stock performance. If EVA is positive but is expected to become less positive, it is not giving a very good signal. Conversely, if a company suffers negative EVA but is expected to rise into a positive territory, a good buying signal is given.