Durable Goods company Coupang is standing out today, surging to $20.94 and marking a 9.9% change. In comparison the S&P 500 moved only -1.0%.
CPNG currently sits within range of its analyst target price of $21.28, which implies that its price may remain stable for the near future.
Surprisingly, analysts give the stock an average rating of buy, which shows that they believe prices could continue to move. Over the last year, Coupang has underperfomed the S&P 500 by 6.8%, moving 18.9%.
Coupang, Inc., together with its subsidiaries owns and operates retail business through its mobile applications and Internet websites primarily in South Korea. The company is a consumer cyclical company, whose sales figures depend on discretionary income levels in its consumer base. For this reason, consumer cyclical companies have better sales and stock performance during periods of economic growth, when consumers have more of an incentive to spend their money on non-essential items.
Coupang's trailing 12 month P/E ratio is 27.9, based on its trailing EPS of $0.75. The company has a forward P/E ratio of 35.5 according to its forward EPS of $0.59 -- which is an estimate of what its earnings will look like in the next quarter.
The P/E ratio is the company's share price divided by its earnings per share. In other words, it represents how much investors are willing to spend for each dollar of the company's earnings (revenues minus the cost of goods sold, taxes, and overhead). As of the first quarter of 2023, the consumer discretionary sector has an average P/E ratio of 22.96, and the average for the S&P 500 is 15.97.
The main limitation with P/E ratios is that they don't take into account the growth of earnings. This means that a company with a higher than average P/E ratio may still be undervalued if it has high projected earnings growth. Conversely, a company with a low P/E ratio may not present a good value proposition if its projected earnings are stagnant.
When we divide Coupang's P/E ratio by its projected 5 year earnings growth rate, we obtain its Price to Earnings Growth (PEG) ratio of 0.78. Since a PEG ratio of 1 or less may indicate that the company's valuation is proportionate to its growth potential, we see here that investors are undervaluing CPNG's growth potential .
Coupang's financial viability can also be assessed through a review of its free cash flow trends. Free cash flow refers to the company's operating cash flows minus its capital expenditures, which are expenses related to the maintenance of fixed assets such as land, infrastructure, and equipment. Over the last four years, the trends have been as follows:
| Date Reported | Cash Flow from Operations ($ k) | Capital expenditures ($ k) | Free Cash Flow ($ k) | YoY Growth (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2,652,000 | 896,000 | 1,756,000 | 777.99 |
| 2022 | 565,000 | 824,000 | -259,000 | 76.13 |
| 2021 | -411,000 | 674,000 | -1,085,000 | -492.65 |
| 2020 | 301,554 | 484,630 | -183,076 |
- Average free cash flow: $57.23 Million
- Average free cash flown growth rate: 55.6 %
- Coefficient of variability (lower numbers indicating more stability): 0.0 %
Free cash flow represents the amount of money that is available for reinvesting in the business, or for paying out to investors in the form of a dividend. With a positive cash flow as of the last fiscal year, CPNG is in a position to do either -- which can encourage more investors to place their capital in the company.
Value investors often analyze stocks through the lens of its Price to Book (P/B) Ratio (market value divided by book value). The book value refers to the present value of the company if the company were to sell off all of its assets and pay all of its debts today - a number whose value may differ significantly depending on the accounting method.
Coupang's P/B ratio indicates that the market value of the company exceeds its book value by a factor of 9, so the company's assets may be overvalued compared to the average P/B ratio of the Consumer Discretionary sector, which stands at 4.24 as of the first quarter of 2023.
Coupang is by most measures undervalued because it has a higher P/E ratio than its sector average, a higher than Average P/B Ratio, and positive cash flows with an upwards trend. The stock has mixed growth prospects because it has a an inflated PEG ratio and weak operating margins with a positive growth rate. We hope you enjoyed this overview of CPNG's fundamentals.
