CVR Partners Is Cheaper Than You Think

CVR Partners (NYS: UAN) may be cheaper than you think.

In the daily noise machine of CNBC, analyst estimates, and quarterly announcements, investors are inundated with talking heads obsessing over earnings-per-share figures.

Earnings, or net income, is an accounting construction that is the basis for the price-to-earnings ratio, the most popular way of measuring how cheap or expensive a stock is.

But free cash flow - the amount of cash a company earns on its operations minus what it spends on them - is another, often more accurate measure of earnings that can give you an advantage.

How CVR stacks up
If CVR tends to generate more free cash flow than net income, there's a good chance that earnings-per-share figures understate its profitability and overstate its price tag. Conversely, if CVR consistently generates less free cash flow than net income, it may be less profitable and more expensive than it appears.

This graph compares CVR's historical net income to free cash flow. (I omitted various gains and charges such as tax deferrals, restructurings, and benefits related to stock options.)

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and author's calculations.

As you can see, CVR has a tendency to produce more free cash flow than net income. This means that the standard price-to-earnings multiple investors use to judge companies may overstate its price tag.

There can be a variety of reasons to disregard such a discrepancy; for example, free cash flow can overstate earnings in businesses with volatile working capital needs, or understate earnings in high growth companies that are reinvesting capital in the business.

Alternatively, in cases where free cash flow more accurately measures earnings, such a discrepancy can indicate a company that is more -- or less -- expensive than investors realize.

Let's examine CVR alongside some of its peers for additional context:

On a P/E basis, CVR looks quite a bit pricier than its peers.

But because the company consistently generates more free cash flow than net income, it's free cash flow multiple is less expensive than its earnings multiple, suggesting that CVR's stock might be quite a bit cheaper than many investors realize.

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At the time thisarticle was published Ilan Moscovitzdoesn't own shares of any company mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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