Q. If a company capitalizes an expenditure related to capital assets instead of expensing it, ignoring taxes, the company will most likely report:
- a lower cash flow per share in that period.
- the same free cash flow to the firm (FCFF) in that period.
- a higher earnings per share in future periods.
Solution
B is correct. The FCFF [Cash flow from operations (CFO) + Interest × (1 − t) − Capital expenditures] would be the same. CFO and capital expenditures would both increase by the same amount (ignoring taxes). Therefore, the net effect on FCFF would be zero.