EV/Revenue vs EV/EBITDA vs EV/EBIT

Hey all. 

I was wondering if anyone could provide some guidance as to when it is best to use each of the following valuation multiples EV/Revenue vs EV/EBITDA vs EV/EBIT. In contrast, when would it not be appropriate to use any one of these?

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Revenue multiple - business is not profitable (EBITDA 0) EBITDA multiple - the company is profitable, has stable margins generally and is not meaningfully capitally intensive (low cap-ex / D&A relative to rev)EBIT - similar to EBITDA with the exception being this metric will capture differences in the capital intensity / free cash flow generating ability of the company being valued. This metric is often substitutes for EBITDA - CapEx which is a proxy for an unlevered Free Cash Flow multiple

 

Because they spend a lot on PPE so they have large Depreciation numbers which can substantially reduce the EBIT number (since it takes into account D&A)

 

TEV/Revenue when a company is not profitable or has a very short history of profitability and is rapidly maturing.  Generally more speculative approach to valuation used with earlier stage companies.

TEV/EBITDA or TEV/EBIT is intended as a proxy for valuation relative to cash flow.  However, if a company has a lot of non-cash expenses (e.g. D&A), then your EBIT may be depressed relative to the actual cash flow of the business.  To that extent EBITDA is generally preferred because it corrects for non-cash expenses.  Fun comes in when you start having to adjust EBITDA for capitalized expenses...

 
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