What Is Average Cost Method?

Average cost method assigns a cost to inventory items based on the total cost of goods purchased or produced in a period divided by the total number of items purchased or produced. Average cost method is also known as weighted-average method.

Understanding the Average Cost Method

Businesses that sell products to customers have to deal with inventory, which is either bought from a separate manufacturer or produced by the company itself. Items previously in inventory that are sold off are recorded on a company’s income statement as cost of goods sold (COGS). COGS is an important figure for businesses, investors, and analysts as it is subtracted from sales revenue to determine gross margin on the income statement. To calculate the total cost of goods sold to consumers during a period, different companies use one of three inventory cost methods:

Average cost method uses a simple average of all similar items in inventory, regardless of purchase date, followed by a count of final inventory items at the end of an accounting period. Multiplying the average cost per item by the final inventory count gives the company a figure for the cost of goods available for sale at that point. The same average cost is also applied to the number of items sold in the previous accounting period to determine the COGS.

Example of Average Cost Method

For example, consider the following inventory ledger for Sam’s Electronics:

What Are Adjusted Funds From Operations—AFFO?

Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) refers to the financial performance measure primarily used in the analysis of real estate investment trusts (REITs). The AFFO of a REIT, though subject to varying methods of computation, is generally equal to the trust’s funds from operations (FFO) with adjustments made for recurring capital expenditures used to maintain the quality of the REIT’s underlying assets. The calculation takes in the adjustment to GAAP straight-lining of rent, leasing costs, and other material factors.

Understanding Adjusted Funds From Operations—AFFO

Regardless of how industry professionals choose to compute adjusted funds from operations (AFFO), it is considered to be a more accurate measure of residual cash flow for shareholders than simple FFO. Though FFO is commonly used, it does not deduct for capital expenditures required to maintain the existing portfolio of properties, so it doesn’t quite measure the true residual cash flow. Professional analysts prefer AFFO because it takes into consideration additional costs incurred by the REIT—and additional income sources too, like rent increases. Thus, It provides for a more accurate base number when estimating present values and a better predictor of the REIT’s future ability to pay dividends. This is a non-GAAP measure.

Calculating Adjusted Funds From Operations—AFFO

Before calculating the AFFO, an analyst must first determine the REIT’s funds from operations (FFO). The FFO measures cash flow from a specified list of activities. FFO reflects the impact from the REIT’s leasing and acquisition activity, as well as interest costs. FFO takes into account the REIT’s net income including amortization and depreciation, but it excludes the capital gains from property sales. The reasons these gains are not included is that they are one time events and generally do not have a long-term effect on the REIT’s future earnings potential.

The formula for FFO is:

FFO = net income + amortization + depreciation – capital gains from property sales

Once the FFO is determined, the AFFO can be calculated. Though there is no one official formula, calculations for AFFO typically would be something like:

AFFO = FFO + rent increases – capital expenditures – routine maintenance amounts

Example of an Adjusted Funds From Operations—

AFFO Calculation

As an example of the AFFO calculation, assume the following: a REIT had $2 million in net income over the last reporting period. During that time, it earned $400,000 from the sale of one of its properties and lost $100,000 from the sale of another. It reported $35,000 of amortization and $50,000 of depreciation. During the period, net rent increases were $40,000; capital expenditures were $75,000 and routine maintenance amounted to $30,000.

Given this information the FFO can be calculated as:

FFO = $2,000,000 + $35,000 + $50,000 – ($400,000 – $100,000) = $1,785,000

From this, the AFFO is calculated as:

AFFO = FFO + $40,000 – $75,000 – $30,000 = $1,720,000

What Is Annuitization?

Annuitization is the process of converting an annuity investment into a series of periodic income payments. Annuities may be annuitized for a specific period or for the life of the annuitant. Annuity payments may only be made to the annuitant or to the annuitant and a surviving spouse in a joint life arrangement. Annuitants can arrange for beneficiaries to receive a portion of the annuity balance upon their death.

Understanding Annuitization

The concept of annuitization dates back centuries, but life insurance companies formalized it into a contract offered to the public in the 1800s.

Individuals can enter into a contract with a life insurance company that involves the exchange of a lump sum of capital for a promise to make periodic payments for a specified period or for the lifetime of the individual who is the annuitant.

How Annuitization Works

Upon receiving the lump sum of capital, the life insurer makes calculations to determine the annuity payout amount. The key factors used in the calculation are the annuitant’s current age, life expectancy, and the projected interest rate the insurer will credit to the annuity balance. The resulting payout rate establishes the amount of income that the insurer will pay whereby the insurer will have returned the entire annuity balance plus interest to the annuitant by the end of the payment period.

The payment period may be a specified period or the life expectancy of the investor. If the insurer determines that the investor’s life expectancy is 25 years, then that becomes the payment period. The significant difference between using a specified period versus a lifetime period is that, if the annuitant lives beyond their life expectancy, the life insurer must continue the payments until the annuitant’s death. This is the insurance aspect of an annuity in which the life insurer assumes the risk of extended longevity.

Annuity Payments Based on a Single Life

Annuity payments based on a single life cease when the annuitant dies, and the insurer retains the remaining annuity balance. When payments are based on joint lives, the payments continue until the death of the second annuitant. When an insurer covers joint lives, the amount of the annuity payment is reduced to cover the longevity risk of the additional life.

Annuitants may designate a beneficiary to receive the annuity balance through a refund option. Annuitants can select refund options for varying periods of time during which, if death occurs, the beneficiary will receive the proceeds. For instance, if an annuitant selects a refund option for a period certain of 10 years, death must occur within that 10-year period for the insurer to pay the refund to the beneficiary. An annuitant may select a lifetime refund option, but the length of the refund period will affect the payout rate. The longer the refund period is, the lower the payout rate.

Changes to Annuities in Retirement Accounts

In 2019, the U.S. Congress passed the SECURE Act, which made changes to retirement plans, including those containing annuities. The good news is that the new ruling makes annuities more portable. For example, if you change jobs, your 401(k) annuity from your old job can be rolled over into the 401(k) plan at your new job.

However, the SECURE Act removed some of the legal risks for retirement plans. The ruling limits the ability for account holders to sue the retirement plan if it doesn’t pay the annuity payments—as in the case of bankruptcy. Note that a safe harbor provision of the SECURE Act prevents retirement plans (and not annuity providers) from being sued.

The SECURE Act also eliminated the stretch provision for those beneficiaries who inherit an IRA. In years past, a beneficiary of an IRA could stretch out the required minimum distributions from the IRA over their lifetime, which helped to stretch out the tax burden.

With the new ruling, non-spousal beneficiaries must distribute all of the funds from the inherited IRA within 10 years of the death of the owner. However, there are exceptions to the new law. By no means is this article a comprehensive review of the SECURE Act. As a result, it’s important for investors to consult a financial professional to review the new changes to retirement accounts, annuities, and their designated beneficiaries.

What Is an Arbitrageur?

An arbitrageur is a type of investor who attempts to profit from market inefficiencies. These inefficiencies can relate to any aspect of the markets, whether it is price, dividends, or regulation. The most common form of arbitrage is price.

Arbitrageurs exploit price inefficiencies by making simultaneous trades that offset each other to capture risk-free profits. An arbitrageur would, for example, seek out price discrepancies between stocks listed on more than one exchange by buying the undervalued shares on one exchange while short selling the same number of overvalued shares on another exchange, thus capturing risk-free profits as the prices on the two exchanges converge.

In some instances, they also seek to profit by arbitraging private information into profits. For example, a takeover arbitrageur may use information about an impending takeover to buy up a company’s stock and profit from the subsequent price appreciation.

Understanding an Arbitrageur

Arbitrageurs are typically very experienced investors since arbitrage opportunities are difficult to find and require relatively fast trading. They also need to be detail-oriented and comfortable with risk. This is because most arbitrage plays involve a significant amount of risk. They are also bets with regards to the future direction of markets.

Arbitrageurs play an important role in the operation of capital markets, as their efforts in exploiting price inefficiencies keep prices more accurate than they otherwise would be.

Examples of Arbitrageur Plays

As a simple example of what an arbitrageur would do, consider the following.

The stock of Company X is trading at $20 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) while, at the same moment, it is trading for the equivalent of $20.05 on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). A trader can buy the stock on the NYSE and immediately sell the same shares on the LSE, earning a total profit of 5 cents per share, less any trading costs. The trader exploits the arbitrage opportunity until the specialists on the NYSE run out of inventory of Company X’s stock, or until the specialists on the NYSE or LSE adjust their prices to wipe out the opportunity.

An example of an information arbitrageur was Ivan F. Boesky. He was considered a master arbitrageur of takeovers during the 1980s. For example, he minted profits by buying stocks of Gulf oil and Getty oil before their purchases by California Standard and Texaco respectively during that period. He is reported to have made between $50 million to $100 million in each transaction.

The rise of cryptocurrencies offered another opportunity for arbitrageurs. As the price of Bitcoin reached new records, several opportunities to exploit price discrepancies between multiple exchanges operating around the world presented themselves. For example, Bitcoin traded at a premium at cryptocurrency exchanges situated in South Korea as compared to the ones located in the United States. The difference in prices, also known as the Kimchi Premium, was mainly because of the high demand for crypto in these regions. Crypto traders profited by arbitraging the price difference between the two locations in real-time.