Free cash flow is one of the most underrated metrics in the stock market. Some people call free cash flow FCF for short. So what is free cash flow? In this post you are going to learn the basics and understand why it's so important when looking at companies and their stock price. Free cash flow is the cash a company has BEFORE it decides to do things like invest in new products, grow its research and development team, acquire other companies, pay dividends to shareholders, buyback stock, or reduce debt. Read the sentence above again. Free cash flow is essentially the money a company has that can be used for growth and shareholder rewards. If you think about it, no single metric is more important than this. Without consistent or growing free cash flows, a company will be unable to do things that support its long-term plans or make its investors happy. Far too many people fixate on earnings per share (EPS) or even revenue and NOT free cash flow. The exact formula for...