EV/EBITDA values the whole business, debt included, against its core earnings.
▶ Watch: EV / EBITDA explained in 24 seconds
What it is
EV/EBITDA compares enterprise value (the whole-company price including debt, minus cash) to EBITDA, a measure of operating profit before financing and accounting deductions. Because it uses enterprise value, it captures debt that P/E ignores. It is widely used to compare companies with different debt levels and tax situations.
Why it matters
It is a favorite in mergers and acquisitions and for comparing capital-intensive or differently-leveraged firms because it neutralizes capital structure and tax. Pitfalls: EBITDA excludes real costs like capital spending and interest, so it can flatter heavily-indebted or asset-hungry businesses, and it is a non-GAAP figure that companies define inconsistently.
How it's calculated
Divide enterprise value (market capitalization plus total debt minus cash and equivalents) by trailing-twelve-month EBITDA.
How Quintarthai uses it
Enterprise-value multiples including EV/EBITDA are in the enterprise-value and multiples sections of the Ratios tab on a stock's company page, and EV/EBITDA is a filterable metric in the Stock Screener.
Cross-border note. IFRS 16 puts essentially all leases on the balance sheet and splits lease cost into depreciation and interest (so it lifts reported EBITDA), whereas US GAAP keeps an operating lease as a single operating expense, so a Canadian issuer's EBITDA, and any leases counted in enterprise value, can sit on a different basis than a US peer's.
FAQ
Why use EV/EBITDA instead of P/E?
EV/EBITDA includes debt and ignores tax and financing differences, so it allows fairer comparison of companies with very different capital structures.
What counts as a low EV/EBITDA?
It varies widely by industry; a multiple that is cheap for a stable utility may be expensive for a slow-growing industrial, so compare within the same sector.
Check your understanding
Why is EV/EBITDA often used to compare two companies with very different debt levels, where P/E might mislead?
By using enterprise value (which adds debt and subtracts cash) over EBITDA (profit before interest and taxes), the multiple removes the effects of differing leverage and tax, allowing fairer comparison; EBITDA is measured BEFORE interest (it does not subtract it), the ratio is not automatically lower for more-levered firms, and it uses trailing not forecast earnings.