Valuation Multiple
Also called: multiples, trading multiple, exit multiple
A valuation multiple expresses price as a ratio to some financial metric — earnings, EBITDA, revenue, book value. It's shorthand for a DCF: a multiple embeds assumptions about growth, risk and reinvestment without stating them. That makes multiples fast to compare and easy to misuse, since two companies on the same multiple can imply wildly different underlying expectations.
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