Today, we decided to present you with a brief analysis of cash per share of Slovenian Blue Chip companies.

We decided to update our cash-per-share analysis for chosen blue-chip companies in Slovenia as almost all of them have published their reports for 2022. The analysis is done in order to see the strength of the balance sheet and how liquid the selected blue chips are. This figure, cash per share, as a percentage of a company’s share price, can give us more insight into the company’s strength in returning the money to shareholders (either through dividends or buybacks), paying down debt, etc. We are excluding financial companies as this measure is not adequate.

Cash per Share of Slovenian Blue Chips (EUR)

Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research

A high level of cash per share could indicate a solid performance of the company, reassuring the shareholders that the company is operating with “enough room” and liquidity to cover any potential difficulties and that the company has adequate capital.

However, it is important to note that looking solely at cash per share of the company could lead to a misleading conclusion without taking into consideration the company’s whole cash and cash equivalents position, especially compared to the company’s short-term debt. This ratio is especially sensitive to stock split, as it basically increases the denominator numerous times, without any effect on the numerator. Consequently, recent Petrol’s 20-to-1 share split affected the calculation, while nothing effectively changed. Also, we note that Cinkarna, too, already conducted a corporate action of share split of 10-to-1 during 2020, just like Petrol did. Nevertheless, using this ratio as a percentage of the current share price can give investors a really insightful view.

Cash Per Share as a Percentage of the Current Share Price

Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research

As visible in the graph, out of chosen Slovenian companies, Luka Koper operates with the highest cash per share as a percentage of their current share price of 20.8%, while their cash per share amounts to EUR 5.4. Luka Koper is followed by Cinkarna Celje with cash per share as a percentage of their current share price standing at 20%. Krka comes next with 15.4%, Petrol with 10.6%.

Cash position of Slovenian Blue Chips (EUR m)

Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research