The comparison among Economic Value Added (EVA), Discount Cash Flow (DCF) and Dividend Discount Method (DDM)
經濟價值（EVA），現金流量折現法（DCF）和股利貼現法（DDM）之間的比較

The review of EVA, DDM and DCF
EVA，DDM和DCF的回顧 

Before the investors begin to invest into one project, they will usually make an assessment in order to decide whether to put money in or not. Currently, all the financial institution or banks adapt three methods; they are EVA, DCF, and DDM. As calculation of these three methods are based on different input data and assumptions from different aspects, so when people use any one of these three methods, sometimes will obtain the adverse conclusion. Like Alex Faseruk said: “the existence of this discrepancy between these models is dizzy.”
投資者開始投資于一個項目之前，，他們通常會作出評估，以決定是否把錢投入。目前，所有的金融機構或銀行適應三種方法，他們是EVA，DCF和DDM。計算這三種方法都是基于不同的輸入數據和從不同的方面假設，所以，當人們使用這三種方法中的任何一個，有時會得到不利的結論。像Alex Faseruk的說：“這些模型之間的這種差異的存在是頭暈目眩。”
The definition of EVA, DCF and DDM
f EVA, DCF和 DDM的定義

DDM
A procedure for valuing the price of a stock by using predicted dividends and discounting them back to present value. The idea is that if the value obtained from the DDM is higher than what the shares are currently trading at, then the stock is undervalued.
Value of stock= dividend per share/discount rate-dividend growth rate
股票價值=股息/每股折現率股利增長率

DCF
A valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of an investment opportunity. Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis uses future free cash flow projections and discounts them (most often using the weighted average cost of capital) to arrive at a present value, which is used to evaluate the potential for investment. If the value arrived at through DCF analysis is higher than the current cost of the investment, the opportunity may be a good one. 
貼現現金流（DCF）分析采用未來現金流量預測及折扣（最經常使用的加權平均資本成本），到達現值，這是用來評估潛在的投資。
Calculated as:
DCF=cf1/(1+r)1+cf2/(1+r)2+......+cfn/(1+r)n
Cf=cash flow
R=discount rate (WACC)

EVA
A measure of a company's financial performance based on the residual wealth calculated by deducting cost of capital from its operating profit (adjusted for taxes on a cash basis, also referred to as "economic profit".)
The formula for calculating EVA is as follows:
= Net Operating Profit after Taxes (NOPAT) - (Capital * Cost of Capital)
EVA的計算公式如下：#p#分頁標題#e#
=稅后凈營業利潤（NOPAT） - （資本*資本成本）

The comparison among EVA, DCF and DDM
EVA, DCF 和 DDM之間的比較
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First of all, let us talk about DCF method. From the definition above, apparently, DCF is based on the assessment of present value in cash flow. Irving Fisher first posed this concept in his book "The Theory of Interest" 1930  and John Burr Williams's 1938 text 'The Theory of Investment Value' first formally expressed the DCF method in modern economic terms.
首先，讓我們談談DCF方法。從上面的定義中，顯然，DCF是基于現金流量的現值評估。歐文•費雪（Irving Fisher）首先提出了這個概念，在他的著作“利息”1930年和1938年約翰•伯爾•威廉姆斯的文本“理論投資價值'的第一個正式表示DCF法在現代經濟條款的理論。

From their points, the time value of cash should be considered priory, it means that all the future cash flow must be estimated and discounted by their present value, and the sum of all the cash flow, whatever the incomings and outgoings, the amount of all the cash flow is NPV (net present value). If NPV is positive, it reflect that this project could be invested because the revenue is high than the costs, investors acquire the profits, and vice verse.

In DCF model, how to judge the discount rate is the key point, because it decides the model success or not. Jaime Sabal made a point in his article “WACC OR APV”. He said, basically, people usually use the WACC (Weighted average cost of capital) as the discount rate in DCF model, which reflects two parts of the cash flows;

1. the time value of money (risk-free rate) – according to the theory of time preference, investors would rather have cash immediately than having to wait and must therefore be compensated by paying for the delay.
2 .a risk premium – reflects the extra return investors demand because they want to be compensated for the risk that the cash flow might not materialize after all.

So that is the reason why DCF model is used widely, because it is a comprehensive method. DCF model adapt WACC as discount rate, it considers all the influence which bring by different aspects, include impact from equity, debt etc. Due to the combination of all the factors, using WACC could more precisely to value the return rate of investment than other models.

Ben McClure, the director of McClure & Co said, instead of trying to come up with a fair value stock price, investors can plug the company's current stock price into the DCF model and, working backwards, calculate how quickly the company would have to grow its cash flows to achieve the stock price. DCF analysis can help investors identify where the company's value is coming from and whether or not its current share price is justified.#p#分頁標題#e#

But free cash flow is difficult and volatile to measure. Michel Habib, and Rudolf Volkart in his text (From Cash Flows to Accounting Numbers in Valuation) said: In many cases, the only discipline imposed on the person estimating the cash flows is self-discipline, especially when estimating cash flows in the distant future. Given the difficulty of forecasting far into the future, some constant rate of growth in cash flows must be assumed beyond some future year.

In general, valuations are extremely sensitive to this growth rate, which by necessity is assumed to go on forever, this naturally dents the credibility of DCF valuations. It represent that in the DCF model any small changes in inputs can result in large changes in the value of a company. Because in the long term, the inputs that produce these valuations are always changing and DCF model will susceptible to error. Like people always said: “garbage in, garbage out”. A single, unexpected event can immediately make a DCF model obsolete. For example, using DCF to analyze commercial real estate during any but the early years of a boom market will lead to overvaluation of the asset.48 Furthermore, with its focus on long-range investing; the DCF model isn't suited for short-term investments.