Calculate WACC from fundamental values

SheetsFinance does not provide a pre-calculated WACC metric. You can build Weighted Average Cost of Capital in your spreadsheet from fundamental values the add-on supplies, plus a few assumptions you enter yourself.

Standard WACC formula

WACC weights the after-tax cost of debt and the cost of equity by each source’s share of total capital:

WACC = (E / V) * Re + (D / V) * Rd * (1 - Tc)

• E — market value of equity

• D — value of interest-bearing debt

• V — E + D

• Re — cost of equity

• Rd — cost of debt

• Tc — corporate tax rate

SheetsFinance can supply E, D, beta (for Re), interest expense (for one Rd estimate), and effective tax rate. You still choose the risk-free rate, equity risk premium, and any overrides for cost of equity or cost of debt.

Pull the SheetsFinance inputs

Use these verified SF calls for the company-specific pieces. Replace AAPL with your symbol.

Equity value (E)

Use current market capitalization as the market value of equity:

=SF("AAPL", "realTime", "marketCap")

Or from company info:

=SF("AAPL", "companyInfo", "marketCap")

Debt value (D)

Use total debt from the balance sheet:

=SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "totalDebt", "ttm")

To build debt from components instead:

=SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "shortTermDebt", "ttm") + SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "longTermDebt", "ttm")

Tax rate (Tc)

Use the pre-built effective tax rate:

=SF("AAPL", "ratios", "effectiveTaxRate", "ttm")

Or rebuild it from the income statement, matching the Financial Formulas definition incomeTaxExpense / incomeBeforeTax:

=SF("AAPL", "income", "incomeTaxExpense", "ttm") / SF("AAPL", "income", "incomeBeforeTax", "ttm")

Beta (for cost of equity)

Pull beta from company info. SheetsFinance defines beta as the monthly stock price change relative to the monthly S&P 500 price change over 5 years, where available:

=SF("AAPL", "companyInfo", "beta")

Interest expense (for one cost-of-debt estimate)

=SF("AAPL", "income", "interestExpense", "ttm")

Method 1: CAPM cost of equity and interest-based cost of debt

This method estimates cost of equity with CAPM and cost of debt from interest expense divided by total debt.

Put your assumptions in cells (examples below use B2 and B3):

• Risk-free rate — enter manually (for example a long-term government yield)

• Equity risk premium — enter manually

=LET(
  E, SF("AAPL", "realTime", "marketCap"),
  D, SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "totalDebt", "ttm"),
  V, E + D,
  beta, SF("AAPL", "companyInfo", "beta"),
  Rf, B2,
  ERP, B3,
  Re, Rf + beta * ERP,
  Rd, ABS(SF("AAPL", "income", "interestExpense", "ttm")) / D,
  Tc, SF("AAPL", "ratios", "effectiveTaxRate", "ttm"),
  (E / V) * Re + (D / V) * Rd * (1 - Tc)
)

ABS on interest expense keeps the rate positive if the statement reports interest as a negative outflow. If D is zero, skip the debt terms and use cost of equity alone.

Method 2: Book-value capital weights

Use book equity instead of market cap when you want statement-based weights. SheetsFinance defines debt to capital as totalDebt / (totalDebt + totalStockholdersEquity) in Financial Formulas; the same components give book WACC weights.

=LET(
  E, SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "totalStockholdersEquity", "ttm"),
  D, SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "totalDebt", "ttm"),
  V, E + D,
  beta, SF("AAPL", "companyInfo", "beta"),
  Rf, B2,
  ERP, B3,
  Re, Rf + beta * ERP,
  Rd, ABS(SF("AAPL", "income", "interestExpense", "ttm")) / D,
  Tc, SF("AAPL", "ratios", "effectiveTaxRate", "ttm"),
  (E / V) * Re + (D / V) * Rd * (1 - Tc)
)

You can swap totalStockholdersEquity for totalEquity if your model includes minority interest in the equity base:

=SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "totalEquity", "ttm")

Method 3: Manual cost of equity and cost of debt

Enter Re and Rd yourself when you already have target returns, yield-to-maturity on debt, or another model’s outputs. Still pull capital structure and tax from SheetsFinance.

=LET(
  E, SF("AAPL", "realTime", "marketCap"),
  D, SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "totalDebt", "ttm"),
  V, E + D,
  Re, B4,
  Rd, B5,
  Tc, SF("AAPL", "ratios", "effectiveTaxRate", "ttm"),
  (E / V) * Re + (D / V) * Rd * (1 - Tc)
)

This matches how the DCF template treats Discount Rate (WACC): company data can be automatic, while the discount rate stays under your control.

Optional: pull several inputs in one call

Chain balance-sheet or income metrics when you want a small input block before the WACC cell:

=SF("AAPL", "balancesheet", "totalDebt&shortTermDebt&longTermDebt&totalStockholdersEquity", "ttm", "NH")

=SF("AAPL", "income", "interestExpense&incomeTaxExpense&incomeBeforeTax", "ttm", "NH")

=SF("AAPL", "companyInfo", "beta&marketCap", "", "NH")

For annual figures, replace "ttm" with a year such as "2023". For quarterly ratios such as effective tax rate, use ratiosQ1 through ratiosQ4 with a year, the same pattern as other custom ratio articles.

What each choice changes

• Market cap vs book equity — market cap tracks current equity value; book equity stays on the statement and can lag price moves.

• totalDebt vs short-term + long-term — use the debt definition your model requires; keep it consistent with how you estimate Rd.

• Interest expense / debt vs manual Rd — the ratio is a quick historical average cost; a bond YTM or stated borrowing rate is often cleaner when you have it.

• Effective tax rate vs statutory rate — effective tax rate follows reported tax expense; a statutory or normalized rate is a common override for forward-looking models.

• CAPM inputs — risk-free rate and equity risk premium are not SheetsFinance WACC fields; enter the values your process uses.

What is next

For related valuation building blocks, see Build enterprise value from components. For how SheetsFinance defines beta, effective tax rate, and debt ratios, see Financial Formulas. For statement line items, see Balance Sheet and Income Statement.