Buffett-Greenwald Free Cash Flow Architecture
Warren Buffett Owner's Earnings
Decomposing capital expenditures into maintenance and growth to reveal true cash-flow power.
Select United States (S&P 500 / NASDAQ) Preset:Capital Intensity: MODERATE
Cash Flow & CapEx (M)
Operating Cash Flow (OCF):$ 118,000M
Total Capital Expenditures (CapEx):$ 11,000M
Gross PP&E (Property, Plant, Equip):$ 114,000M
Current Year Revenue:$ 385,000M
Prior Year Revenue:$ 360,000M
Current Share Price:$ 225.00
Buffett Owner's Earnings
$ 114,402.6M
Standard Free Cash Flow: $ 107,000M
HIGH GROWTH COMPOUNDER
3.4% Yield
CapEx Breakdown (Bruce Greenwald):Maintenance: 33% | Growth: 67%
Maintenance: $ 3,597.4MGrowth: $ 7,402.6M
Superb capital allocation. The majority of CapEx drives accretive top-line revenue expansion rather than merely defending obsolete physical assets.
P / Owner's Earnings:
29.9x
P / Standard FCF:
32.0x
Buffett Alpha / Share:
+$ 0.49
Owner's Earnings Per Share vs Standard FCF
Owner's Earnings / Share:
$ 7.53
Includes growth CapEx add-backStandard FCF / Share:
$ 7.04
Penalizes all CapEx as expenseMethodological Reference: Buffett 1986 Shareholder Letter
Standard GAAP accounting and Wall Street models subtract 100% of capital expenditures to calculate Free Cash Flow. However, fast-growing compounders that deploy massive capital into expanding store counts, server farms, or fiber networks are artificially penalized. By isolating true Maintenance CapEx via Professor Bruce Greenwald's PPE-to-sales capacity model, we reveal the true underlying cash distribution power of the enterprise.