The key terms used on freebirdcapital and in the knowledge base on unifyweave.ai — each with its German equivalent and a link to the article or tool where it is explained or calculated.
| Term | German | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Blended P/E | Gemischtes KGV | P/E on an earnings base that shifts monthly from the last reported earnings to the current-year estimate. |
| Book value | Buchwert | Equity as reported on the balance sheet. Often far below economic value in knowledge-intensive companies. |
| Contribution margin | Deckungsbeitrag | Revenue minus variable costs — the amount that covers fixed costs and contributes to profit. |
| Credit rating | Kreditrating | A rating agency's view of creditworthiness, from AAA to D. Part of balance-sheet quality in the Freebird Rating. |
| Dividend yield | Dividendenrendite | Annual dividend divided by the share price. The Freebird Rating measures it together with dividend growth against the risk-free rate. |
| Earnings per share (EPS) | Gewinn je Aktie | Net income divided by the number of shares. The long-term driver of the share price. |
| Earnings yield | Gewinnrendite | Inverse of the P/E. Directly comparable with the yield of a safe bond. |
| EBIT | EBIT | Earnings before interest and taxes — operating profit independent of financing. |
| Economic profit | Wertbeitrag | (ROIC − WACC) × invested capital. Equivalent to operating result after imputed interest. |
| ESEF | ESEF | European Single Electronic Format: the EU's mandatory format for annual financial reports of listed issuers, with Inline XBRL tagging of IFRS consolidated statements. |
| EV/EBIT | EV/EBIT | Enterprise value including debt divided by operating profit. Compares differently financed companies. |
| Fair value (intrinsic value) | Fairer Wert | Estimated value of a company from future earnings and an appropriate valuation — the yardstick for the purchase price. |
| Free cash flow (FCF) | Freier Cashflow | Operating cash flow less capital expenditure. Shows whether a dividend can be paid from cash — for real-estate companies, AFFO takes its place (FFO less recurring maintenance capital expenditure), otherwise FFO. |
| German flat-rate tax on capital income | Abgeltungsteuer | Germany's flat 25 % tax on capital income, plus solidarity surcharge and church tax where applicable. |
| GICS sector | GICS-Sektor | Global Industry Classification Standard: industry breakdown into eleven sectors. Basis of the sector thresholds in the Freebird Rating. |
| Imputed interest | Kalkulatorische Zinsen | Cost of tied-up capital in cost accounting, independent of actual financing. |
| Internal rate of return (IRR) | Interner Zinsfuß | Rate at which all cash flows balance out. Measures the return on money invested, including timing. |
| Invested capital | Investiertes Kapital | Fixed assets plus net working capital — the capital tied up by the operating business. |
| Margin of safety | Sicherheitsmarge | Gap between purchase price and estimated fair value that absorbs errors in one's own assumptions. |
| Net working capital | Nettoumlaufvermögen | Inventories plus trade receivables minus trade payables. |
| NOPAT | NOPAT | Net operating profit after taxes: the numerator of ROIC. |
| Payout ratio | Ausschüttungsquote | Share of earnings paid out as dividends. Too high endangers the dividend; too low may signal idle cash. The Freebird Rating also measures it against free cash flow; the worse value counts. |
| PEG ratio | PEG | P/E divided by expected earnings growth in percent. Around 1 is considered fair for growth stocks. |
| Price-to-book ratio (P/B) | KBV | Price divided by book value per share. Useful for banks and asset-heavy businesses. |
| Price-to-cash-flow ratio (P/CF) | KCV | Price divided by operating cash flow per share. Helpful when depreciation depresses earnings. |
| Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) | KGV | Price divided by earnings per share. With constant earnings, the payback period in years. |
| Price-to-sales ratio (P/S) | KUV | Price divided by sales per share. Only meaningful together with the margin. |
| Relative Strength Index (RSI) | RSI | Technical indicator from 0 to 100 for price momentum. Shown in the Freebird Rating as a hint only, not scored. |
| Replacement value | Wiederbeschaffungswert | What an asset would cost new today. Basis of imputed depreciation. |
| Return on equity (ROE) | Eigenkapitalrendite | Net income divided by equity. Also rises with more debt — never look at it alone. |
| Return on invested capital (ROIC) | ROIC | NOPAT divided by invested capital. Creates value when above the cost of capital. |
| Rule of 72 | Regel 72 | 72 divided by the annual return gives roughly the years to double. |
| Saver's allowance | Sparerpauschbetrag | Tax-free amount for capital income in Germany: €1,000 per person, €2,000 for joint assessment. |
| Taxonomy | Taxonomie | Binding dictionary of concepts for tagging financial reports — a chart of accounts for external reporting. |
| Time-weighted rate of return (TWRR) | Zeitgewichtete Rendite | Chained return of the periods between cash flows. Measures the strategy, independent of timing. |
| Value investing | Value Investing | Buying good companies below their intrinsic value, with a margin of safety and a long horizon. |
| W-8BEN | W-8BEN | US form with which non-US investors reduce dividend withholding tax from 30 % to 15 %. |
| WACC | WACC | Weighted average cost of equity and debt — the benchmark for ROIC. |
| Withholding tax | Quellensteuer | Tax withheld by the source country on dividends; 15 % for US shares with form W-8BEN. |
| XBRL / Inline XBRL | XBRL / Inline XBRL | Language for machine-readable tagging of financial reports; with Inline XBRL the tags sit inside the human-readable report. |
| Yield curve | Zinskurve | Yields of bonds of equal quality by maturity. Provides the risk-free rate for every valuation. |
David Krause
Graduate industrial engineer (Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur), 15+ years of costing, cost accounting and plant controlling in manufacturing. Here he asks the same questions from the outside: what does a company earn on its capital, and what may it cost?