Introduction to Corporate Finance

Ross et al.: Fundamentals

of Corporate Finance, Sixth

Edition, Alternate Edition

III. Valuation of Future

Cash Flows

6. Discounted Cash Flow
   Valuation

© The McGraw−Hill^191

Companies, 2002

Present Value with Multiple Cash Flows

It will turn out that we will very often need to determine the present value of a series of
future cash flows. As with future values, there are two ways we can do it. We can either
discount back one period at a time, or we can just calculate the present values individu-
ally and add them up.
Suppose you need $1,000 in one year and $2,000 more in two years. If you can earn
9 percent on your money, how much do you have to put up today to exactly cover these
amounts in the future? In other words, what is the present value of the two cash flows at
9 percent?
The present value of $2,000 in two years at 9 percent is:
$2,000/1.09^2 $1,683.36

The present value of $1,000 in one year is:

$1,000/1.09 $917.43

Therefore, the total present value is:

$1,683.36 917.43 $2,600.79
To see why $2,600.79 is the right answer, we can check to see that after the $2,000 is
paid out in two years, there is no money left. If we invest $2,600.79 for one year at 9
percent, we will have:

$2,600.79 1.09 $2,834.86

We take out $1,000, leaving $1,834.86. This amount earns 9 percent for another year,
leaving us with:

$1,834.86 1.09 $2,000

This is just as we planned. As this example illustrates, the present value of a series of fu-
ture cash flows is simply the amount that you would need today in order to exactly du-
plicate those future cash flows (for a given discount rate).
An alternative way of calculating present values for multiple future cash flows is to
discount back to the present, one period at a time. To illustrate, suppose we had an in-
vestment that was going to pay $1,000 at the end of every year for the next five years.
To find the present value, we could discount each $1,000 back to the present separately
and then add them up. Figure 6.5 illustrates this approach for a 6 percent discount rate;
as shown, the answer is $4,212.37 (ignoring a small rounding error).
Alternatively, we could discount the last cash flow back one period and add it to the
next-to-the-last cash flow:

($1,000/1.06) 1,000 $943.40 1,000 $1,943.40

CHAPTER 6 Discounted Cash Flow Valuation 161

for only four years, the second deposit earns three years’ interest, and the last earns two

years’ interest:

$100 1.07^4 $100 1.3108 $131.08

$200 1.07^3 $200 1.2250  245.01

$300 1.07^2 $300 1.1449  343.47

Total future value $719.56