A football field is one horizontal bar chart. Each valuation lens is a row, each bar spans that lens's low-to-high range, and a vertical line marks the current price. It's the most-used exhibit in professional valuation, because it says in one glance what's true: value is a range, and here is where every method puts it.
Sundar Foods' assembled ranges, in ₹ per share, look like this:
| Lens | Low | High | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52-week trading range | 138 | 196 | Market data (stamp the date) |
| Comps — EV/EBITDA | 166 | 206 | 8–10× FY1E EBITDA |
| Comps — P/E | 185 | 221 | 15–18× FY1E EPS |
| Precedent transactions | 227 | 267 | 11–13× EV/EBITDA control deals (shade differently: includes a control premium a minority buyer never receives) |
| DCF | 143 | 175 | WACC 11.5–12.5% × g 4.5–5.5% (the box in the sensitivity table) |
| Reverse-DCF marker | — | 185 | Price implies g ≈ 7.1% perpetual at 12% WACC |
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How do you build a football field chart?
To build one, follow these mechanics. They work in Excel, in Sheets or in anything else:
- Build a helper table with three columns:
Low,Span = High − Low, and the row labels. - Insert a stacked horizontal bar chart on Low and Span. Each bar has two segments. One runs from 0 to Low, and the other from Low to High.
- Format the Low series with no fill and no border. It turns into invisible scaffolding, and only the span from Low to High is left floating in the right position. Set the x-axis minimum to something sensible, ₹100 here. Leave it at zero and every bar hugs the left edge.
- For the price line, add a scatter series with points at (185, each row), plotted on the same axis and connected vertically. A simpler option that's nearly as good is a text-boxed vertical line drawn at 185 with the label "CMP ₹185 (date)". Charting purists use an error-bar trick, but the drawn line is auditable and never breaks.
- Label each bar with its assumption basis, such as "8–10× FY1E EBITDA", right on the chart. Nobody reads the footnote. Order the rows with market evidence (52-week) on top, then the relative lenses, then the control lens, with the intrinsic lens at the bottom. That way the eye travels from "what is" to "what should be."
How do you read a football field?
Now read Sundar's field. Its DCF band (143 to 175) is below the comps bands (166 to 221). Intrinsic value and market evidence agree in the overlap zone, roughly ₹165 to 175. At 185, the price is above the overlap, inside comps territory. A glance at the reverse-DCF marker tells you why. It shows the market paying for ~7% perpetual growth where your model allows 5%. Don't read the precedent band (227 to 267) as upside. It's what a buyer of the whole company might pay, control premium included. It only matters if a sale is plausible.
Here's the field verdict, written so you could defend it to a portfolio manager: Fairly valued to modestly rich on my assumptions, with the debate entirely about perpetual growth. I'd be interested near the DCF band's midpoint, ~₹155 to 160. It gives a range, the driver of the disagreement and an action level, and that's what the exhibit is for.