cash flow is the cash flow actually available for payments to all investors $($stockholders and debtholders$)$ after the company has made investments in fixed assets, new products, and

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$.$ A negative FCF means that the company does not have sufficient

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funds to finance its investments in fixed assets and working capital, and that it will have to raise new money in the

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markets to pay for these investments. Negative FCF is not always bad. If FCF is negative because after$-$tax operating income is negative this is bad, because the company is probably experiencing operating problems. Exceptions to this might be startup companies, companies incurring significant expenses to launch a new product line, and high$-$growth companies$$with large capital investments.