I've been seeing some investors look at the metric "ex-cash P/E" when evaluating tech companies. From my understanding, it seems like ex-cash P/E is essentially equal to EV/earnings since the numerator is equity value minus net cash. If that's the case, doesn't that mean ex-cash P/E is a fundamentally incorrect multiple given that the numerator and denominator of EV/earnings isn't apples to apples (as all the IB guides tell us)?
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