• QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Are We Taking Our Net Working Capital Calculations Seriously Enough?

    April 15, 2026

    In an economic environment where supply shocks and inflation are either not risks or pressing concerns, changes in net working capital receive limited attention. However, where supply shocks and or inflation are real risks, analysts must reassess traditional views to understand net working capital is fluctuating and what strategy management is espousing, along with the risks those strategies bring. In this article, the author invites readers to reassess their views on the implications of changes in net working capital. To answer this question, a brief review is helpful. Working capital (total current assets – total current liabilities) is an accounting…

  • Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Top Story

    Valuation Issues When Quantifying Economic Damages

    September 10, 2025

    For International Arbitration Proceedings This article highlights key valuation issues that are debated during arbitrations, which we have faced on numerous occasions. Some of the most important ones that come up during the quantification of economic damages in international arbitration are biases in financial projections, questions about discount rate, and some secondary concerns. Introduction Economic damages are seen as the Holy Grail of any international arbitration. The amount of compensation for financial losses is the ultimate goal of the claimant, who seeks to be compensated for the damage suffered, but that amount is also the main concern for the respondent,…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Incorporating Country Risk Premium Differentials

    March 2, 2022

    Into the Market-Based Valuation (Part II of II) This is the second of the two-part article regarding country risk. In this second part, the author discusses how to incorporate the risk into multiples. Read Part I here. Incorporating Country Risk into Multiples Having found the value of the country risk premium required, we can proceed with incorporating it into the market-based valuation. It is worth mentioning that the decisive feature for determining the difference in country risk is the area of activity, not the location of the corporate headquarters. Our goal is to determine what should be the multiple if…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Incorporating Country Risk Premium Differentials

    February 23, 2022

    Into the Market-Based Valuation (Part I of II) This is a two-part article on how to incorporate country risk premium. The market-based approach to valuation is commonly used by market practitioners and is based on the relevant values and multiples from similar assets. One of the differentiators between assets is the country risk related to the operations, when the multiples are collected from various countries. This paper presents the proposed approach to incorporate country risk premium differentials into the multiples. It describes the possible ways of obtaining the country risk premium and the procedure of making the adjustment to the…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    StraightTalk Webinar Series

    December 2, 2020

    Business Valuation in a COVID-19 World—Cost of Capital, Growth Rates, and Uncertainties Jim Hitchner, Managing Member of Valuation Products and Services (VPS), unveiled the first of a series of two-hour webinars that targets business valuation and litigation support professionals seeking an intermediate level program. This is a review of the first webinar titled “Business Valuation in a COVID-19 World—Cost of Capital, Growth Rates, and Uncertainties”. This article summarizes the issues discussed during this first webinar. [su_pullquote align=”right”]Resources: Best Practices in Business Valuation—A Practical Approach to Advanced Issues and Applications [/su_pullquote] On October 29, 2020, Jim Hitchner, Managing Member of Valuation…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Terminal Values in DCFs

    November 20, 2019

    And Runaway Valuations In a discounted cash flow analysis, a large portion of a firm’s value is typically attributed to the terminal value, i.e., the value beyond the projection period. Valuation presentations often show or discuss what happens to the firm’s value if the perpetuity growth rate (PGR) is changed. In this sensitivity analysis, it is common to see wild swings in valuations because the terminal value changes a lot when one changes the PGR for a given level of weighted average cost of capital (WACC). However, this large variation in terminal values could be a result of not linking…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Common Sense, Simplicity, and

    October 23, 2019

    The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 H.R.1 There was a flurry of activity within the valuation community following passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) and several complicated tax calculation models were unveiled. While we acknowledge the TCJA is beginning to show a noticeable impact on the level of our value conclusions, how much of an impact ought it really have on the way we perform our work? In this article, the author reviews salient features of the TCJA and concludes with some thoughts and suggestions for retaining common sense and applying simplicity to…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Top Story

    Do You Carry a Portfolio

    October 9, 2019

    Of Your Work? What can a BVFLS professional do to stand out amongst his or her peers? In this article, Rod Burkert shares his thoughts. How do BVFLS professionals like us to demonstrate our analytical skill? How do we exhibit our problem-solving acumen? How do we showcase our report writing talent? I have an idea…turns out it is somewhat controversial…but read on and let me know what you think. All creatives—artists, writers, musicians, photographers, graphic designers, website developers, etc.—carry a portfolio of their work they can show to a prospective employer or client and say, “See, I’ve done this. This…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Business Valuation with Odds

    July 25, 2018

    Odds as a Financial Ratio in Business Valuation Theory Every business transaction involves a bet of sort. This is also evidenced in the price of put and call options. Can we draw some insight from sports betting to help us calculate the value of a business? Perhaps. Odds in sports betting is a common expression communicating the change and return of winning a bet. Odds as a ratio in business valuation theory is presented in this article. Using odds as a ratio in business valuation helps expressing the probability of a forecasted free cash flow. This might start further discussions…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    The Impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

    July 11, 2018

    On Business Valuations The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changes many aspects of how business analysts perform valuations. Upon passing of the TCJA, Jim Hitchner moved quickly to gather and disseminate information about the TCJA and its effect on business valuation. He has written two comprehensive articles in Issues 72 and 73 of Financial Valuation and Litigation Expert. The information in this article summarizes some of the main points expressed in those publications.

  • Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Revisiting Modeling and Discounting Future Damages

    May 31, 2017

    The Case for Use of a Risk-Adjusted Rate in Damages Cases Robert Dunn and Everett Harry laid out a process for modeling and discounting future lost profits to present value in their article, Modeling and Discounting Future Damages. Not all experts agreed with the position presented by Dunn and Harry. In March, we revisited modeling and its level of acceptance. This article revisits the more controversial portion of the Dunn and Harry article, determining the discount rate. Dunn and Harry believed modeling the projected income stream reduced uncertainty and risk in an expert’s estimates. Therefore, they stated a lesser discount…

  • QuickRead Featured - Valuation/Appraisal

    Book Review—A Consensus View Q&A Guide to Financial Valuation

    March 2, 2016

    Hitchner, Pratt, and Fishman Answer the Call In the past month, business valuation professionals have read reviews from a number of practitioners serving as reviewers for the Q&A Guide. All of them are positive. In this book review, we go into a little more detail and discuss what these established and accomplished business valuation professionals and leaders answer in the Q&A Guide. So, what does this book cover? What is not covered? These questions are answered in this review.

  • Valuation/Appraisal

    Damodaran Data Page Available

    May 7, 2014

    Professor, Aswath Damodaran, of the NYU Stern School of Business has released his 2014 Data Page online. Updated annually and exhaustively researched, the data page offers in-depth information on 41,000 companies in 131 worldwide markets, including measures of operation, leverage, pricing, equity risk premiums and country risk. One of the major changes to this year’s data page was the switch from Value Line to Morningstar, Bloomberg and Capital IQ for all U.S. firms. You can review the data page at the link below. [button color=”blue” link=”http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/New_Home_Page/data.html” target=”_blank” font=”arial” align=”left”]Read Full Article[/button]

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Are Valuation Experts Tax-Affecting the Wrong Earnings?

    July 3, 2013

    Important factors to consider in making tax adjustments to pass-through income Damodaran recently wrote about the potential devaluation of dividend-paying stocks if the preferred dividend tax rate were to climb back up to the ordinary rate.  This could inspire valuation experts to make a tax adjustment reducing untaxed Pass-Through Entity (PTE) income to equate it with corporately taxed income that qualifies for tax preference at the shareholder level.  Before making this tax adjustment, the valuation expert should consider several factors.  

  • QuickPress - Valuation/Appraisal

    Do You Know What Your Business Is Worth? You Should. —New York Times

    February 5, 2013

    Few Business Owners Seem to Even Know How to Make a Good Guess at What Their Business is Worth.  NY Times Introduces Technology to Help—and Certified Advisers Provide Extra Value.  Mark Cohen, at The New York Times Small Business Guide, reports:  “At 53, Joe Ritz is old enough to remember a time when many of the classic cars that now pull into his specialized repair shop were new. “It’s one field where it pays to be a senior citizen,” he said. It’s Critical for a Business Owner to Know the Value of His Business; Here are Tips on Technology, Advisors,…

  • QuickPress - Valuation/Appraisal

    NYU’s Legendary Valuation Expert: 4 Things Apple Must Do To Become A Hot Stock Again —Business Insider

    February 5, 2013

    Aswath Damodaran, NYU’s Legendary Valuation Expert, Recently Argues that there’s a 90% Chance Apple is Undervalued.  Here’s Why.   This comes in the wake of Apple shares’ breathtaking plunge from recent highs. (That’s be about $700 in September to $425 or so today.) In a new blog post, Sam Ro at Business Insider reports that Damodaran thinks that management can learn a few things from the recent market volatility, and he offers some advice.  Here are his four tips verbatim (emphasis courtesy of Business Insider’s Sam Ro:   Build up credibility with investors: The company has to regain credibility with investors. Apple…