Should out-of-the-money options be included in a Discounted Cash Flow analysis?

In a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis, out-of-the-money options are generally excluded because they are not currently worth exercising. This means that they do not contribute any intrinsic value to the analysis since their payoff is zero unless the underlying asset increases significantly in value. The primary focus of a DCF analysis is to project the future cash flows of a company and discount them back to their present value. Out-of-the-money options are speculative and typically do not affect the underlying cash flows, making their inclusion in a DCF analysis unnecessary and potentially misleading.

When considering the relevance of out-of-the-money options, it's important to recognize that while they could have some speculative value, especially in the context of volatility or potential future movements in a company's stock price, their indirect effect on the cash flows is usually considered marginal. Thus, excluding them helps to maintain a cleaner and more accurate representation of a company's value based on its operating performance and future growth prospects.