cash cow

Cash cow

A company that pays out most of its earnings per share to stockholders as dividends. Or, a company or division of a company that generates a steady and significant amount of free cash flow.

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cash cow

A business or a segment of a business that produces significantly more cash than it consumes. As an example, a firm may sell a product that requires minimal advertising and promotional expenditures but continues to generate revenues year after year. Firms sometimes use cash cows to provide cash for financing other segments of their business.

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Cash Cow

In growth share matrices, the quadrant representing companies, especially subsidies, that produce large profits with little need for cash injection because they have large market shares in slow-growing markets. A cash cow is not necessarily experiencing growth; if it is growing, it is almost always very slow. Corporations want to own cash cows, as they require little oversight compared to the profits they produce. See also: Marketing, Portfolio analysis.