E4.12. Cash Flows for Walmart Stores (Easy) Walmart has been the most successful retailer in history. The panel below reports cash flows and earnings for the firm from 1988 to 1996 (in millions of dollars, except per-share numbers): 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Cash from operations 536 828 968 1,422 1,553 1,540 2,573 3,410 2,993 Cash investments 627 541 894 1,526 2, 150 3,506 4,486 3,792 3,332 Free cash flow (91 287 74 (104) (597) (1,966) (1,913 (382 (339 Net income 628 837 1,076 1,291 1,608 1,995 2,333 2,681 2,740 EPS 0.28 0.37 0.48 0.57 0.70 0.87 1.02 1.17 1.19 The cash flows are unlevered cash flows. a. Why would such a profitable firm have such negative free cash flows? b. What explains the difference between Walmart's cash flows and earnings? c. Is this a good firm to apply discounted cash flow analysis to