Guide · Cash generation
FCF yield on B3 stocks: the potential dividend yield
The FCF yield (free cash flow yield) shows how much cash the company actually has left after keeping its own business running — divided by the price you pay for it. It's the ceiling on what it could distribute: the potential dividend yield.
The math
Operating cash flow (CFO) is the money the operation actually generated in the year, already stripped of accounting effects. From it you subtract capex — the investment in fixed assets needed just to keep the business running. What remains is free cash flow; divided by market cap, it becomes a yield.
The price used is point-in-time: the first trading session after the balance sheet was actually published, never today's price over stale earnings. That removes look-ahead — the same care as in /guias/backtest.
Why it's the "potential dividend yield"
The dividend yield shows what the company chose to pay. The FCF yield shows what it could pay without borrowing or cutting investment. When FCF yield is well above the dividend yield, there is slack: the company is retaining cash (to grow, pay down debt or buy back shares). When the dividend paid exceeds the FCF yield for years, the payout isn't sustained by cash generation alone — it's coming from debt or asset sales.
How Dados B3 extracts capex (auditable)
Capex doesn't come from a single standardized line — each company names its investment item differently in the cash flow statement (DFC). Dados B3 locates the line by text search inside the statement (terms like "purchase of property, plant and equipment", "purchase of intangibles") and records which line was summed. So the number isn't a black box: you can open the math and see exactly where each unit of capex came from.
Real B3 examples (2025)
FCF yield over the point-in-time price of the 2025 balance sheet:
| Ticker | Company | FCF yield |
|---|---|---|
| SUZB3 | Suzano | 21% |
| FLRY3 | Fleury | 19% |
| PETR4 | Petrobras | 16% |
| LREN3 | Lojas Renner | 14% |
| TAEE11 | Taesa | 10% |
An FCF yield of 10% to 20% says that, at the price of the time, the company generated free cash equal to 10%–20% of its market cap in one year — plenty of room for dividends, buybacks or debt reduction. But beware the single year (below).
The trap — working capital inflates one year
A single year's operating cash flow swings with working capital. If the company runs down inventory or stretches supplier terms, cash comes in that won't repeat; if it restocks, cash goes out that isn't a loss. One year can look spectacular and the next terrible without the operation changing at all.
How Dados B3 helps
CFO, capex and the point-in-time price all come with their source account — including which line of the cash flow statement became capex. The FCF yield ranking uses a 5-year median precisely so it doesn't reward the lucky year. See the math at /metodologia/fcf and the ranking at /ranking.