Estimating the cash flow generated by $1 invested in a project The profitability index (PI) is a capital budgeting tool that is defined as the present value of a projects cash inflows divided by the absolute value of its initial cash outflow. Consider this case: Free Spirit Industries Inc. is considering investing $2,500,000 in a project that is expected to generate the following net cash flows: Year Cash Flow Year 1 $300,000 Year 2 $425,000 Year 3 $450,000 Year 4 $500,000 Free Spirit Industries Inc. uses a WACC of 8% when evaluating proposed capital budgeting projects. Based on these cash flows, determine this projects PI (rounded to four decimal places): 0.4921 0.5195 0.5468 0.5741 Free Spirit Industries Inc.s decision to accept or reject this project is independent of its decisions on other projects. Based on the projects PI, the firm should the project. By comparison, the NPV of this project is . On the basis of this evaluation criterion, Free Spirit Industries Inc. should in the project because the project increase the firms value. A project with a negative NPV will have a PI that is ; when it has a PI of 1.0, it will have an NPV.