In this study, we examined the performance of an investment strategy that identifies small firms with consistent pattern of operating and free cash flows, low financial leverage, and low free cash flow multiples. We found that portfolio based on this investment strategy can generate superior returns, these portfolios performed better than the CRSP value-weighted market index, similar book/market portfolios. Thus, the superior results of the free cash flows portfolios are probably not attributable to additional dimensions of risk.
The results reported in this study are for the U.S. capital markets. Preliminary back-tests of the strategy for foreign investment show that a foreign portfolio based on the free cash flow strategy is also superior to a return on a value-weight world market index. Thus, the same strategy can be applied to generate abnormal returns on a combined portfolio of U.S. and foreign stock. Similarly, this strategy can be applied using quarterly data instead of annual data as in the current study, and the authors are in the process of examining results based on quarterly data.