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annual report. An alternative is to use the four quarters, not the most recent fiscal
Standard Industrial Classification codes year—and eliminate one-time events.
published by the US government. A slightly
better (but proprietary) system is the Global Empirical evidence shows that forward-
Industry Classification Standard (GICS) looking multiples are more accurate
recently developed by Morgan Stanley predictors of value. Jing Liu, Doron Nissim,
Capital International and Standard & Poor’s. and Jacob Thomas, for example, compared
the characteristics and performance of
With an initial list of comparables in historical and forward industry multiples
hand, the real digging begins. You must for a subset of companies trading on the
examine each company on the list and NYSE , the American Stock Exchange, and
answer some critical questions: why are Nasdaq.4 When they compared individual
the multiples different across the peer companies against their industry mean, the
group? Do certain companies in it dispersion of historical earnings-to-price
have superior products, better access (E/P) ratios was nearly twice that of one-
to customers, recurring revenues, or year forward E/P ratios. The three also
economies of scale? If these strategic found that forward-looking multiples
advantages translate into superior ROICs promoted greater accuracy in pricing. They
and growth rates, the companies that examined the median pricing error for each
have an edge within an industry will multiple to measure that accuracy.5 The
trade at higher multiples. You must error was 23 percent for historical multiples
become an expert on the operating and to 18 percent for one-year forecasted
and financial specifics of each of the earnings. Two-year forecasts cut the median
companies: what products they sell, how pricing error to 16 percent.
they generate revenue and profits, and
how they grow. Not until you have that Similarly, when Moonchul Kim and
expertise will a company’s multiple appear Jay Ritter compared the pricing power
in the appropriate context with other of historical and forecast earnings for
companies. In the end, you will have a more 142 initial public offerings, they found
3 A note of caution about forward multiples: appropriate peer group, which may be as that the latter had better results.6 When
some analysts forecast future earnings by small as one. In order to evaluate Home the analysis moved from multiples based
assuming an industry multiple and using
the current price to back out the required Depot, for instance, only Lowe’s remains on historical earnings to multiples
earnings. As a result, any multiple calculated in our final analysis, because both are based on one- and two-year forecasts,
from such data will reflect merely the
analyst’s assumptions about the appropriate pure-play companies earning the vast the average prediction error fell from
forward multiple, and dispersion (even when
majority of their revenues and profits from 55.0 percent, to 43.7 percent, to 28.5 percent,
warranted) will be nonexistent.
just a single business. respectively, and the percentage of
4 Jing Liu, Doron Nissim, and Jacob K.
For companies whose unlevered P/E (the generate misleading results. (Despite the
ratio they would have if entirely financed common perception that multiples are easy
by equity) is greater than one over the to calculate, calculating them correctly
cost of debt, P/E ratios rise with leverage. takes time and effort.) Here are the most
Thus, a company with a relatively high all- common adjustments.
equity P/E can artificially increase its P/E
ratio by swapping debt for equity. Second, • Excess cash and other nonoperating assets.
the P/E ratio is based on earnings, which Since EBITA excludes interest income from
include many nonoperating items, such as excess cash, the enterprise value shouldn’t
restructuring charges and write-offs. Since include excess cash. Nonoperating assets
these are often one-time events, multiples must be evaluated separately.
based on P/E s can be misleading. In 2002,
for instance, what was then called AOL • Operating leases. Companies with
Time Warner wrote off nearly $100 billion significant operating leases have an
in goodwill and other intangibles. Even artificially low enterprise value (because
though the EBITA (earnings before the value of lease-based debt is ignored)
interest, taxes, and amortization) of the and an artificially low EBITA (because
company equaled $6.4 billion, it recorded rental expenses include interest costs).
a $98 billion loss. Since earnings were Although both affect the ratio in the
negative, its P/E ratio wasn’t meaningful. same direction, they are not of the same
magnitude. To calculate an enterprise-
One alternative to the P/E ratio is the ratio value multiple, add the value of leased
of enterprise value to EBITA . In general, assets to the market value of debt and
this ratio is less susceptible to manipulation equity. Add the implied interest expense
by changes in capital structure. Since to EBITA .
enterprise value includes both debt and
equity, and EBITA is the profit available • Employee stock options. To determine the
to investors, a change in capital structure enterprise value, add the present value of
will have no systematic effect. Only when all employee grants currently outstanding.
such a change lowers the cost of capital will Since the EBITAs of companies that don’t
changes lead to a higher multiple. Even so, expense stock options are artificially high,
don’t forget that enterprise-value-to-EBITA subtract new employee option grants (as
multiples still depend on ROIC and growth. reported in the footnotes of the company’s
annual report) from EBITA .
4. Adjust the enterprise-value-to-EBITA
multiple for nonoperating items • Pensions. To determine the enterprise
Although the one-time nonoperating items value, add the present value of pension
in net income make EBITA superior to liabilities. To remove the nonoperating
earnings for calculating multiples, even gains and losses related to pension plan
enterprise-value-to-EBITA multiples assets, start with EBITA , add the pension
must be adjusted for nonoperating items interest expense, deduct the recognized
hidden within enterprise value and EBITA , returns on plan assets, and adjust for
both of which must be adjusted for these any accounting changes resulting from
nonoperating items, such as excess cash changed assumptions (as indicated in the
and operating leases. Failing to do so can footnotes of the company’s annual report).
The right role for multiples in valuation 11
Other multiples too can be worthwhile, but hits, unique visitors, or the number of
only in limited situations. Price-to-sales subscribers. Such multiples, however,
multiples, for example, are of limited use should be used only when they lead to
for comparing the valuations of different better predictions than financial multiples
companies. Like enterprise-value-to-EBITA do. If a company can’t translate visitors,
multiples, they assume that comparable page views, or subscribers into profits
companies have similar growth rates and and cash flow, the nonfinancial metric
returns on incremental investments, but is meaningless, and a multiple based on
they also assume that the companies’ financial forecasts will provide a superior
existing businesses have similar operating result. Also, like all multiples, nonfinancial
margins. For most industries, this multiples are only relative tools; they merely
restriction is overly burdensome. measure one company’s valuation compared
with another’s. As the experience of the late
PEG ratios7 are more flexible than 1990s showed, an entire sector can become
traditional ratios by virtue of allowing the detached from economic fundamentals
expected level of growth to vary across when investors rely too heavily on relative-
companies. It is therefore easier to extend valuation methods.
comparisons across companies in different
stages of the life cycle. Yet PEG ratios do
have drawbacks that can lead to errors in
valuation. First, there is no standard time Of the available valuation tools, a
frame for measuring expected growth; discounted-cash-flow analysis delivers
should you, for instance, use one-year, two- the best results. Yet a thoughtful analysis
year, or long-term growth? Second, these of multiples also merits a place in any
ratios assume a linear relation between valuation tool kit. MoF
multiples and growth, such that no growth
implies zero value. Thus, in a typical Marc Goedhart (Marc_Goedhart@McKinsey.com)
growth rates are undervalued by industry office, and Tim Koller (Tim_Koller@McKinsey
.com) is a partner in the New York office.
PEG ratios.
David Wessels (wessels@wharton.upenn.edu),
an alumnus of the New York office, is an adjunct
For valuing new companies (such as dot-
professor of finance at the Wharton School of the
coms in the late 1990s) that have small sales
University of Pennsylvania. This article is adapted
and negative profits, nonfinancial multiples from the authors’ forthcoming book, Valuation:
can help, despite the great uncertainty Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies,
surrounding the potential market size and fourth edition, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley
profitability of these companies or the & Sons, available at www.mckinsey.com/valuation.
7 PEG multiples are created by comparing
investments they require. Nonfinancial Copyright © 2005 McKinsey & Company.
a company’s P/E ratio with its underlying
growth rate in earnings per share. multiples compare enterprise value to a All rights reserved.
nonoperating statistic, such as Web site
Copyright © 2005 McKinsey & Company