Stock Valuation: Great Plains Energy Inc. (GXP)

Name of Company Country of Origin/ Exchange Traded Sector Stock Price    
GREAT PLAINS ENERGY INC US/
NYSE
Utilities – Utilities – Regulated – Utilities – Regulated Electric USD31.99    
@ 05 Jun 2018    
COMPANY PROFILE Great Plains Energy Inc is a public utility holding company of Kansas City Power & Light and Missouri Operations Company which provides electric service in the Kansas City area and nearby western Missouri and eastern Kansas.

Great Plains Energy is the holding company of Kansas City Power & Light and Greater Missouri Operations. The two regulated utilities provide electric service to roughly 900,000 customers in the Kansas City area and nearby western Missouri and eastern Kansas. The company has about 6.5 gigawatts of generating capacity. More than 80% of its electricity generation is from coal-fired plants, approximately 15% comes from its co-owned Wolf Creek nuclear plant, and the remainder is from gas, oil, and wind farms.

Stock Code GXP    
Stock Valuation and Dividend Analysis Below            

For stocks that has a history of paying meaningful dividends, the stock price is often dependent on how much dividend the company pays.
At the price of USD31.99 as at 05 Jun 2018, Great Plains Energy Inc is trading at a Dividend Yield of 3.9%. This is a 29.5% premium to its historical average Dividend Yield of 5.6%.  (Note: The lower/higher the dividend yield, the more expensive/cheaper the stock is.) 
Is the stock overvalued? One should not just look at one indicator to determine the fair value of a stock. 
ProThinker believes in using a combination of valuation methods to decide whether a stock is over or undervalued? The five ratios we use are Price to Earnings, Price to Sales, Price to Cash Flow, Price to Book and Dividend Yield. We use multiple methods to value a stock because each has its benefits as well as shortcomings. Price to Earnings and Price to Cash Flow Ratios relate stock price to profitability but are meaningless when the comany has negative earnings or cash flows. Price to Sales Ratio is more stable because sales are never negative. However, this does not tell us whether the company is able to sell profitably. Price to Book Ratio gives us an indication as to how much we are paying for the company’s assets but it is not directly related to the company’s profitability. Dividend Yield cannot be used for companies that are paying little to no dividends.
While it is important to value stocks based on multiple valuation methods, this often leads to differing views on valuation. One indicator may suggest that a stock is overvalued while another suggest that it is undervalued. This does not help an investor who needs to make a definite decision whether to buy, hold or sell the stock. That is why we advocate the use of a Composite Valuation Indicator, which is derived from the best combination of the five indicators above. A Composite Valuation Indicator will give you ONE conclusion on whether a stock is under or over valued. 
To find out more about our valuation methodology, click here.             
We should not only be concerned about the amount of dividends, we should determine if the dividends paid out by the company are sustainable. One way to do that is to compare dividends paid out to the free cash flows that the company is generating.
The company always pays less dividends than its free cash flow, which is very good.

Source of Data: Price to Sales chart is from ProThinker Stock Report. Company description, historical financial statements data and price data are from gurufocus.com. Estimates are from gurufocus and/or 4-traders.com – Thomson Reuters.
Disclaimer: This report is for information purposes only and should not be considered a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Neither ProThinker nor any other party guarantees its accuracy or makes warranties regarding results from its usage. Redistribution is prohibited without the express written consent of ProThinker. Copyright(c) 2018. All rights reserved.