What is EBITDA?

EBITDA stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.”

The EBITDA associated with a company aims to capture the performance of its core operations. The idea is that by ignoring expenses such as taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization, it takes away all the costs not directly related to running the business.

EBITDAs can be helpful when comparing two companies—in a sense, it compares the ability of a company’s managers to make money when debt structure and so on are identical.

EBITDA is often used as a valuation measure in mergers and acquisitions, especially when small businesses or middle market companies are involved. Mergers are when two or more companies combine to form one entity. An acquisition is when a company buys another one.

Of course, though, it’s not possible to isolate out factors like debt. Excess debt and interest costs can be very negative to a company’s earnings and cash flow, and investors need to be aware of that—and factor it into their investment decisions.

Because its limitations, EBITDA is not compatible with the rules of generally accepted accounting principles.

In terms of financial performance, we recommend looking beyond EBITDA for stocks with a long-term record of dividends, a long-term record of profit, an attractive balance sheet, industry prominence or dominance, and the ability to serve all shareholders.

At TSI Network, we recommend using our three-part Successful Investor philosophy:

1. Invest mainly in well-established companies;
2. Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; the Consumer sector; Finance; Utilities);
3. Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

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