Investors prefer cash flow over earning but the article points out that there are many shortfall is in using standard cash flow measures. There are various definitions of cash flow, some quite incoherent. GAAP does not help either since the whole subject of cash flow itself is so vast, varies from country to country, and possesses complexities and unpredictability that even GAAP with its laws and definitions has just left us with more confusion, inconsistency, and miscategorization. In response to this complexity of cash flows, many investors resort to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and cash earnings (typically defined as net income plus depreciation...

These existed before the GAAP measures, but they have their own major shortcomings.
The question then is: what is the best measure of free cash flow? And the way to answer this is to ask how free cash flow metric will be used.

The article distinguished between four possible uses of cash flow metrics and focuses on the two most popular uses of cash flow in valuations:

a. As the main variable in DCF models

b. In price-to-free cash flow (P/FCF) multiples.

The article focuses on cash flows in multiples-based valuations (b) because this is where the problems are the most evident.

The article defines and…