Cash Flow Statement example: Tesla 2016

The best way to learn how to read a cash flow statement is to go through real-life examples of companies you have heard of! Let me show you in this video what a cash flow statement is, and how the cash flow numbers look for Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) for 2016.

Let’s start with the purpose of the cash flow statement. What a company shows by publishing a cash flow statement in an annual report, is how they got from the cash balance on January 1st (on the previous balance sheet), to the cash balance on December 31st (the latest balance sheet). The increase or decrease between the January 1st and December 31st cash balance is called cash flow. It consists of three categories: Cash From Operating Activities, Cash From Investing Activities, Cash From Financing Activities, or terms with slight variations on that wording.

We will review Tesla’s cash flow statement for 2016. Tesla started the year with $1.2B in cash and cash equivalents, and ended the year with $3.4B. The total cash flow was therefore a net cash inflow of $2.2B. Now where did that $2.2B in cash flow come from?
Cash From Operating Activities was an outflow of $100MM, or $0.1B. In finance, we put negative numbers between brackets.
Cash From Investing Activities was an outflow of $1.4B.
Cash From Financing Activities was an inflow of $3.7B.
So that’s the top level cash flow picture: Tesla attracted financing in the form of debt or equity which allowed them to invest. Tesla ended the year with more cash than they started with, to continue investing and running everyday operations.

In the video, we go one level deeper, discussing each of the cash flow categories. Cash From Operating Activities will take the vast majority of the attention, Cash From Investing Activities and Cash From Financing Activities are fairly straightforward for Tesla in 2016.

Philip de Vroe (The Finance Storyteller) aims to make strategy, finance and leadership enjoyable and easier to understand. Learn the business vocabulary to join the conversation with your CEO at your company. Understand how financial statements work in order to make better stock market investment decisions. Philip delivers training in various formats: YouTube videos, classroom sessions, webinars, and business simulations. Connect with me through Linked In!