It has been a tough and challenging 2010 for Telecom New Zealand ($TEL.NZ) - New Zealand’s largest listed company. $TEL.NZ is trading close to a 52-week low at NZ$2.24. There has been widespread outages on their mobile XT network and yesterday a group of New Zealand entrepreneurs (including Valuecruncher investor Lance Wiggs) announced a new international broadband initiative to complete with the Southern Cross Cable Network (of which $TEL.NZ is the largest shareholder). Time to look at some valuation numbers - where is $TEL.NZ coming out?

Valuecruncher Interactive Analyst Report For $TEL.NZ

Discounted Cash Flow Valuation

We have completed a discounted cash flow valuation using our interactive tools (there is a “discounted cash flow analysis” link just under the company name on the company page). We have populated our model with a mixture of consensus analyst estimates and Valuecruncher estimates. Our analysis produces a valuation of NZ$2.70 for $TEL.NZ - 20.5% above the current share price. We see $TEL.NZ undervalued at the moment. But how about compared to a peer group?

Comparator Analysis

I am going to look at only one of the metrics we use at Valuecruncher - EV/EBITDA. Enterprise Value (EV) is simply market capitalization plus net debt [long-term borrowings less cash]. We use EV to capture the impact of debt and cash on a company’s balance sheet - market capitalization doesn’t capture different capital structures when comparing companies. EV/EBITDA shows how a dollar of profit (measured in as Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization) is being valued by the market against the comparator set.

On an EV/EBITDA basis $TEL.NZ is trading at 3.7x ($TEL.NZ is being valued at 3.7x last year’s profit at the EBITDA line). A dollar of $TEL.NZ EBITDA is worth less than a dollar of $T, $VZ, $VOD.O or $TLS.AX EBITDA. $TEL.NZ is a smaller scale but broadly similar business - $VOD.O is perhaps an outlier.

If we raise the $TEL.NZ EV/EBITDA multiple to the average of $T, $VZ and $TLS.AX (4.7x) then this gives a share price of NZ$3.17 - 41.5% above the current share price. This valuation is in line with our DCF analysis - but even higher.

Summary

Based on our DCF valuation - $TEL.NZ looks undervalued. Looking at some comparators - the market is valuing $TEL.NZ lower compared to the peer group. $TEL.NZ looks cheap at current prices - even with the challenges the business is facing.

Disclosure: no positions.

Verizon ($VZ) announced positive third-quarter results this week.  Analysts have been generally impressed.  How does the current share price look from an intrinsic value perspective?

Valuecruncher valuation model of $VZ with interactive assumptions

Valuecruncher produces a valuation of US$37.77 for $VZ. This is a current valuation (an estimate of intrinsic value using a discounted cash flow model) not a target price. This valuation is 23.8% above the current share price of US$30.50.

Assumptions

• Revenue: Reuters aggregates 22 analysts covering $VZ and these analysts have mean estimates of 2008 and 2009 revenues of US$97.0 billion and US$103.3 billion respectively. For our analysis we have used US$97.0 billion in 2008, US$103.0 billion in 2009 and US$105.0 billion in 2010.
• Profitability: We have used an EBITDA margin of 32.0% in 2008 rising to 33.0% in 2010. Reuters has $VZ‘s EBITD margin at 32.7% last year and 34.4% over the last five-years.
• Capital Expenditure: We have assumed capital expenditures of US$17.5 billion per annum moving forward.
• Discount Rate: 9.0%.
• Terminal Growth Rate: 1.5%.

Our analysis incorporates the cash and debt the $VZ balance sheet – Valuecruncher calculates a net debt number.

Play with our assumptions – what does your analysis say?

Disclosure: None