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Finance: What is a Cash Cow? 0 Views


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What is a Cash Cow? Using the analogy of the cow who can be relied upon to produce milk regularly, the cash cow term is usually applied to a financial asset that generates regular cash flow and profits. The more obvious examples of cash cows are casinos and real estate in high rent areas. However, a reliable, dividend paying stock that holds value consistently, such as an Altria or Walmart may also be referred to as cash cow.

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Transcript

00:00

Finance a la shmoop what is a cash cow? that feels good [Person milking a cow]

00:08

mmm that's the spot yep that's me I'm a cash cow and boy howdy does that ever

00:14

feel good in the morning well I'm a type of company that's a natural part of the

00:19

business cycle and which kind of goes like this [Business cycle chart appears]

00:22

early companies are cash pigs those pigs eat everything including tons of cash

00:27

and let me tell you what comes out of them

00:30

it ain't milk...young companies need cash capital to grow like to build server

00:35

farms yeah like that and you know different kinds of farms and oil rigs

00:40

and chemical synthesizing plants and tractors smelting factories and stamping

00:45

machines and massive robotic thingamabob makers those well those early companies

00:51

chew up tons of cash as they build their business early in their cycle building

00:56

revenues and they might burn, i dunno five million dollars in year 1 to make 1 [Stack of cash burning]

01:02

million dollars in revenues not profit that's just in revenues then they pig

01:06

out on 20 million dollars in losses in year 5 but by then maybe they have a

01:11

hundred million dollars in revenues then they begin to chill as they grow out of

01:15

being a pig into yes higher life-forms like me where they maybe start to break

01:20

even on 500 million in revenues and no losses and no profits just

01:26

breakeven and by the time they've truly evolved into me, way over here on the

01:31

bell curve of their lifecycle then they're producing tons of cash like this

01:37

CD company which now has three billion dollars of revenue in a billion bucks in [CD 'R' Us store appears]

01:42

cash profits unfortunately its future doesn't look all that great as revenues

01:47

have likely more than peaked and it'll produce a whole lot less cash in the

01:51

next decade as they you know kindly put it out to pasture so if it doesn't buy

01:56

more growth companies with its cash yeah then it becomes dinner [Butcher slicing meat and blood appears on camera lens]

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