Comparable company analysis values a business against the trading multiples of similar public companies. You select a peer set, calculate each peer’s enterprise-value-to-revenue and enterprise-value-to-EBITDA multiples, and apply the median or a position-adjusted multiple to the target’s metrics. Because it reflects minority, public-market prices, it typically sits below precedent transaction analysis, which includes a control premium. It is the fastest read on how the market is currently pricing a sector.
Trading comps answer a present-tense question: what is the market paying right now for companies like this one. Unlike precedent transactions, which look back at deals that closed months or years ago, trading multiples move daily with the market. That makes comps the freshest of the three classic methods, and the most sensitive to sentiment.
A useful peer set is narrow. The right comparables share the target’s business model, revenue mix, growth, and margin profile, not just its industry label. A vertical software company and a payments processor sit in different multiple worlds even when both are called fintech, because the market pays for recurring software economics.
For each peer you calculate enterprise value, the market value of equity plus net debt, and divide it by revenue, ARR, or EBITDA. Figures are normalized so the multiples are comparable, removing one-time items and aligning the metric definitions across the set.
Applying a public median to a private company without these adjustments overstates value. The discount is real, and the way to narrow it is preparation, not assertion.
The three methods bracket value from different angles. Comparable company analysis gives the current public-market read, usually the lowest of the three because it carries no control premium. Precedent transaction analysis gives the price control buyers have paid, usually higher. A discounted cash flow tests both against the company’s own economics.
It is a valuation method that prices a business against the trading multiples of similar public companies. You build a peer set, calculate each peer’s EV/Revenue and EV/EBITDA, and apply the median or a position-adjusted multiple to the target. Because it reflects public-market minority prices, it is the fastest read on how a sector is currently valued.
Trading multiples are minority, public-market prices with no control premium. Precedent transaction multiples reflect buyers paying for control of a whole company and the synergies that come with it. The control premium is why the same business can sell above where the comps imply.
You discount it for the differences buyers price: smaller size and higher risk, the illiquidity of private ownership, and weaker disclosure than an audited public company. Clean, diligence-ready reporting is what lets a private company earn the higher end of the range.
Quality matters more than quantity. A tight set of genuinely similar peers, matched on business model, revenue mix, growth, and margin, is more reliable than a long list that shares only an industry label. A handful of close comparables usually beats a dozen loose ones.
No. It is one of three classic methods, used with precedent transaction analysis and a discounted cash flow. Comps give the current market read, precedents give the control price, and the DCF tests both against the company’s own cash generation.
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