WACC

Weighted Average Cost of Capital. The blended return a company must earn to satisfy everyone funding it: the cost of equity weighted by equity market value, plus the after-tax cost of debt weighted by debt market value. It is the discount rate for unlevered free cash flow in a DCF, because those cash flows belong to debt and equity holders together. Use market values for the weights, never book.

Go deeper

This term comes up constantly in valuation interviews and on the desk.

DCF interview questions guide

Related Valuation terms

Go further than reading

The written material is free. These are the ways to get it applied to your own work.

Browse the full glossary — 150+ finance recruiting and technical terms, in plain English.