DCF Calculator: Estimate the Fair Value of Any Stock

A DCF calculator turns any stock into a fair-value estimate by forecasting its free cash flow and discounting it back to today. The result tells you whether the market price looks cheap, fair, or expensive against the model.

Use our DCF calculator to value any company with positive free cash flow. It auto-fills price, shares, FCF, and net debt from real stock data, then lets you steer the assumptions.

Two Ways to Start

The calculator works two ways: search a real company or build a hypothetical from scratch.

Search a stock. Type a ticker or company name and the calculator pulls current share price, shares outstanding, levered free cash flow (TTM), and net debt (total debt minus cash). The currency switches to match the listing. Only companies with positive trailing free cash flow appear in the search, since a forward DCF needs a positive base to project from. Once a stock is loaded, the financial fields lock to keep the auto-filled data intact.

Build it manually. Clear the search and enter your own values. This mode fits private companies, hypothetical scenarios, or stress-testing a public name with adjusted figures.

Both modes feed the same engine. Only the source of the financial inputs changes.

The Financial Inputs

These four fields describe the company as it stands today.

Share price. The current market quote per share. The calculator compares this number against its own fair-value output to label the stock undervalued or overvalued.

Shares outstanding. Total shares the company has issued. The model divides equity value by this number at the end to produce fair value per share, so even small changes here flow straight to the headline result.

Free cash flow. The annual cash the business generates after operations and reinvestment. When auto-filled, the calculator uses trailing-twelve-month levered FCF, the cash available to equity holders after interest payments. This is the base number every projected year grows from.

Net debt. Total debt minus cash on the balance sheet. A cash-rich company can have negative net debt, which adds to equity value rather than subtracting from it. The slider accepts negative values for that case.

The Assumption Inputs

These five fields drive the projection. Small changes here move the answer more than most investors expect.

FCF growth rate. The annual percentage the company is expected to grow free cash flow during the projection window. Anchor it to historical FCF growth, then adjust for industry outlook and competitive position. The slider covers the typical range, and the input field next to it accepts any value beyond it, including negative rates for shrinking businesses.

Discount rate (WACC). The yearly percentage used to shrink future dollars back to today. The standard choice is the company's weighted average cost of capital, usually between 6% and 12% for stable businesses. A higher rate produces a lower fair value.

Terminal growth rate. The perpetual growth rate applied after the projection window ends. It captures every cash flow beyond the explicit forecast through a perpetuity formula. Realistic values sit between 2% and 4%, roughly aligned with long-run GDP. The calculator forces this to stay below the discount rate; otherwise the perpetuity formula produces nonsense.

Projection period. The number of explicit forecast years before the model switches to terminal value. Default is 10. Shorter windows put more weight on terminal value; longer windows put more weight on the explicit forecast.

Margin of safety. A discount applied to fair value to set a buy-below price. The default 25% means the calculator only flags the stock as a buy when the market price sits 25% below fair value. Conservative investors raise this; aggressive investors lower it.

Reading Your Results

The output panel surfaces the same answer from several angles.

Fair value per share is the headline number. Compare it to the current price to see whether the model thinks the stock is cheap or expensive.

Valuation tier translates the gap into a label: significantly undervalued (50% or more above price), undervalued (15% to 50%), fairly valued (within 15%), overvalued, or significantly overvalued. The bands give a quick read without reading the percentage.

Upside / downside is the percentage gap between fair value and current price. Buy below applies the margin of safety to fair value, so a $146 fair value with a 25% margin of safety produces a $109.50 buy-below price.

PV of cash flows vs PV of terminal value splits enterprise value into the explicit forecast and the perpetuity. In most 10-year DCFs, terminal value represents 60% to 80% of the total. When the split is that lopsided, the answer depends heavily on the terminal growth assumption.

Sensitivity table is the default chart and the most useful view. It recomputes fair value across a grid of growth rates and discount rates, so you see the full range instead of a single point estimate. The bars, pie, and table tabs show the same projection from different angles, and the share button copies the URL with every input baked in.

A DCF is precise but rarely accurate. Treat the headline number as a starting point and the sensitivity grid as the real answer.

Open the DCF calculator to value any stock in seconds, or read the DCF valuation explainer for the math behind every input. For the full toolkit, see our guide to investment calculators.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate is a DCF calculator? The math is exact, but it relies on inputs that are forecasts. Two analysts working from the same financials can produce fair values that differ by 30% or more by adjusting growth and discount rates. The sensitivity table is more useful than any single output cell.

Which stocks can I value with the DCF calculator? Any company with positive trailing free cash flow. Businesses with negative free cash flow cannot be valued through a forward DCF because there is no positive base to project from. For those, valuation usually shifts to revenue multiples or peer comparisons.

What discount rate should I use? The standard answer is the company's WACC, typically 6% to 12% for stable businesses. Higher-risk companies and those with expensive debt warrant a higher rate. Try several values and read the spread, rather than committing to one number.

Why is the terminal value so big? Terminal value captures every cash flow beyond the projection window, condensed into one number. In a 10-year DCF it commonly represents 60% to 80% of total enterprise value. That makes the terminal growth rate one of the most consequential assumptions in the entire model.