Things You'll Need:
- Company annual report
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Step 1
In investing, "free cash flow" measures how profitable a company is. It's the amount of money a company has left over after it has paid all its bills. By looking at free cash flow, you can see whether a company is actually making any money and you can get a sense of what it's spending its money on.
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Step 2
Cash flow information can be found in a company's cash flow statement, which is filed as part of its annual report (or 10-K) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cash flow statement is found under "Financial Statements."
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Step 3
To find free cash flow, you subtract capital expenditures from cash from operations. Basically, you look at how much money the company made (cash from operations) and how much it spent (capital expenditures), and what's left is free cash flow.
