What is EV to Sales Ratio?
EV to Sales Ratio is the valuation metric which is used to understand company’s total valuation compared to its sale and is calculated by dividing enterprise value (Current Market Cap + Debt + Minority Interest + preferred shares – cash) by annual sales of the company.
Have a look at the above Box IPO Financial model with forecasts. What we note is that BOX is making losses not only at the Operating but also at the Net Income Level. How do you value such companies that grow fast but are free cash flow negative?
In such cases, we cannot apply valuation multiples like PE ratio (due to negative earnings), EV to EBITDA (if EBITDA is negative), or DCF approach (when FCFF is negative). The valuation tool that comes to our rescue is EV to Sales.
In this article, we will dig deeper –
- What do we mean by Enterprise Value to Sales Ratio?
- Enterprise Value to Sales Formula
- EV to Sales Examples
- When to use EV/Sales?
- Which is Better – EV to Sales vs. Price to Sales?
- Using EV to Sales for Box IPO Valuation
- Limitations of Enterprise Value to Sales
- In the final analysis
What do we mean by Enterprise Value to Revenue Ratio?
EV / Sales is an interesting ratio. It takes into account the enterprise value, and then the enterprise value is being compared with the sales of the company. Now, why should we calculate this ratio? With this ratio, we get an idea of how much it costs to investors relative to per-unit sales.
From the investor’s point of view, there are two interpretations that are most important –
- If this ratio is higher, then it is considered that the company is costlier, and it’s not a good bet for investors to invest in because they won’t be getting any immediate benefit out of this investment.
- If this ratio is lower, then it is considered to be a great investment opportunity for investors; because when EV / Sales is lower, it is perceived as undervalued, and then if the investors invest, they would get good benefit out of it.
So if you are an investor and thinking of investing in a company, but don’t know whether it’s a good bet or not, calculate Enterprise Value to Sales ratio, and you would know! If it’s higher, stay away from investment; and if it’s lower, go ahead and invest in the company (subject to the other ratios because, as an investor, you shouldn’t take any decision on the basis of only one ratio).
Enterprise Value to Sales Formula
Let’s start with Enterprise Value (EV). To find out the enterprise value, we need to know three specific things – market capitalization, the debt that is yet to be paid, and the cash and bank balance.
Here’s the formula of Enterprise Value (EV) –
EV = Market Capitalization + Outstanding Debt – Cash & Bank balances
Now, we need to find out how each of them should be considered.
Market Capitalization is the value we get when we multiply the outstanding shares of the company by the market price of each share. How should we calculate it? Here’s how –
Let’s say Company A has outstanding shares of 10,000, and the market price of each of the shares at this moment is the US $10 per share. So, the market capitalization would be = (outstanding shares of the Company A * market price of each share at this moment) = (10,000 * US $10) = US $100,000.
Outstanding debt is the long-term liabilities the firm needs to pay back in the long run.
And cash & bank balances are the liquid assets of the company which needs to be deducted from the sum total of market capitalization and outstanding debt. (Also, look a detailed article on Cash & Cash Equivalents)
We have understood all the components of Enterprise Value (EV), which we can now calculate. Let’s now talk about Sales.
What would we consider as “sales” in this ratio?
When we would take sales, it is net sales, not gross sales. A gross sale is a figure which is inclusive of the sales discount and/or sales returns. We would take the net sales, and that means we need to exclude sales discount and sales returns (if any) from the gross sales to get the right figure.
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EV to Revenue Examples
Let’s look at a few examples to understand how to calculate the enterprise value to sales. We will look at a simple example first, and then we will illustrate the ratio with two complex examples.
Example # 1
We have the following information –
| Details | In US $ |
| Market Price of Share | 15 / share |
| Outstanding Shares | 100,000 shares |
| Long term liabilities | 2000,000 |
| Cash & Bank balances | 40,000 |
| Sales | 1,000,000 |
Calculate the Enterprise Value and the ratio of EV / Sales.
This is a simple example, and we will just follow along, as we have explained before.
First, we will calculate the market capitalization by multiplying the outstanding shares with a market price per share.
| Details | In US $ |
| Market Price of Share (A) | 15 / share |
| Outstanding Shares (B) | 100,000 shares |
| Market Capitalization (A * B) | 1,500,000 |
Now, let’s as we have market capitalization, we can calculate the enterprise value (EV).
| Details | In US $ |
| Market Capitalization | 1,500,000 |
| (+) Long term liabilities | 2,000,000 |
| (-) Cash & Bank balances | (40,000) |
| Enterprise Value (EV) | 3,460,000 |
We know the enterprise value and sales is already mentioned. So now, we can ascertain the multiple
| Details | In US $ |
| Enterprise Value (EV) | 3,460,000 |
| Sales | 1,000,000 |
| EV / Sales | 3.46 |
Depending on the industry, investors need to understand whether 3.46 is a higher or lower ratio, and then the investor can decide whether to invest in a company or not.
Example # 2
Let’s look at the following information –
| Details | In US $ |
| Market Price of Share | 12 / share |
| Book value per share | 10 / share |
| Book Value of Shares | 2,500,000 |
| Long term debt | 3,000,000 |
| Cash & Bank balances | 500,000 |
| Gross Sales | 1,500,000 |
| Sales Return | 400,000 |
Compute enterprise value (EV) and the ratio EV / Sales.
In this example, the computation is a bit complex as first, we need to find out the number of shares, and then we will be able to compute the market capitalization.
So, let’s find out the outstanding shares first.
| Details | In US $ |
| Book Value of Shares (A) | 2,500,000 |
| Book value per share (B) | 10 / share |
| Outstanding Shares (A / B) | 250,000 shares |
We know the market price per share, and now we have the exact number of outstanding shares as well. Then we can compute the market capitalization right away –
| Details | In US $ |
| Outstanding Shares (C) | 250,000 shares |
| Market Price of Share (D) | 12 / share |
| Market Capitalization (C * D) | 3,000,000 |
We now have market capitalization. So it would be easier to calculate enterprise value. Let’s calculate the enterprise value now –
| Details | In US $ |
| Market Capitalization | 3,000,000 |
| (+) Long term liabilities | 3,000,000 |
| (-) Cash & Bank balances | (500,000) |
| Enterprise Value (EV) | 5,500,000 |
We will now calculate net sales. As we cannot include gross sales in the ratio, we need to deduct sales return from the gross sales and find out the net sales first.
| Details | In US $ |
| Gross Sales | 1,500,000 |
| (-) Sales Return | (400,000) |
| Net Sales | 1,100,000 |
We now have enterprise value and net sales as well. So we can ascertain this ratio.
| Details | In US $ |
| Enterprise Value (EV) | 5,500,000 |
| Sales | 1,100,000 |
| EV / Sales | 5.00x |
Enterprise value to Sales is 5x, which is higher or lower depending on the industry that the firm operates in. So if the EV / Sales of the industry is usually higher, then the investors can invest in the company. And if it is not the case, the investors need to think twice before investing in the company. But as an investor, it’s of primary importance that you check with all other ratios to come up with a concrete conclusion.
When to use EV/Sales?
- EV to Revenue is very difficult to game from an accounting point of view. Though it is a crude measure, it does provide us with great insights on how much we are paying for the company per-unit sales.
- It can be very helpful when there are significant differences in the accounting policies of companies. PE ratio, on the other hand, can vary dramatically with changes in accounting policies.
- It can be used for companies with negative free cash flows or unprofitable companies. Most of the internet e-commerce startups (running unprofitably) like Flipkart, Uber, Godaddy, etc. can be valued using EV/Sales.
- EV/sales can be useful for identifying restructuring potential. Andrew Griffin noted in his discussion on restructuring that Alcatel-Lucent was reporting losses with each year and was valued at 0.1x Ev/Sales. According to him, the rule-of-thumb was that a mature company should trade at an EV/sales of its EBIT margin percentage, divided by 10. So if the EBIT margin was expected to be 10%, it should trade at 1x multiple; if it was expected to be 5%, then 0.5xEV/Sales. Andrew expected that the company will reach at least 3% EBIT margins, and hence, it looked undervalued.
Which is Better – EV to Sales vs. Price to Sales?
First thing first, the Price to Sales ratio is technically incorrect. Price per share is the price at which one can buy a share, i.e., it belongs to the shareholder or the equity holder. However, when we consider the denominator – Sales, it is a pre-debt item. This means that we haven’t paid off interest, and hence, it belongs to both the debt holder as well as the equity holder. This means that the numerator belongs to the equity holder, and the denominator belongs to both the debt and equity holders. This makes apples to oranges comparison and is, therefore, incorrect.
However, you will still find many analysts using this ratio. In the Price to Sales ratio, an analyst may be using market capitalization to understand how much it costs to purchase the company. However, in P/S, debt is not considered. If a company has huge amounts of debt in its capital structure, then the valuation inferences drawn from the Price to Sales ratio will be incorrect. That’s why EV / Sales is a better ratio than the P/S Ratio.
Let us take an example of Godaddy.
If you observe the trend in EV to Sales and Price To Sales of Godaddy, you will note that there is a marked difference in both the ratios. Why?
source: ycharts
To answer this question, we need to understand the following concept.
Enterprise value = Market Cap + Debt – Cash.
Now when do you think will Enterprise Value be very different from Market Capitalization. This can happen when (Debt – Cash) is a significant number.
source: Godaddy SEC Filings
Godaddy’s Balance Sheet reveals the presence of large amounts of debt ($1,039.8 million). Its Debt to Equity Ratio is greater than 2.0x. However, Godaddy has a cash & cash equivalent of $352 million. The contribution of (Debt – Cash) is pretty significant in the case of Godaddy, and hence, both the ratios differ.
Let us now contrast this with Amazon. Amazon Price to Sales ratio and EV to Sales ratio almost mimic each other.
source: ycharts
Amazon Debt to Equity ratio is low (less than 0.75x), and they have a huge pile-up of cash. Due to this, (Debt – Cash) does not contribute the Enterprise value of Amazon meaningfully. Therefore, we note that Price to Sales and EV to Sales of Amazon are similar.
source: Amazon SEC Filings
Using EV to Sales for Box IPO Valuation
#1 – Comparable Comps Method using EV / Sales
Please note that I did this Box IPO Valuation a long time back, and I have not updated the numbers since then. However, from understanding the EV/Sales point of view, this example is still valid.
For doing a quick comparable comp analysis SaaS companies, I took the SaaS companies data from the BVP Cloud Index.
We note that Box is not profitable and is negative at the EBITDA level too. The only option to value such a company with negative free cash flows is to use EV/Sales.
We make the following observations from the above table.
- Cloud companies are trading at an average of 9.5x EV/Sales Multiple.
- We note companies like Xero is an outlier that trades at 44x EV/Sales multiple (expected 2014 growth rate of 94%).
- Cloud companies trade at EV/EBITDA multiple of 32x.
Box Valuation
- Box Inc valuation range from $11.02 (pessimistic case) to $24.74 (optimistic case)
- The most expected valuation for Box Inc using Relative Valuation is $16.77 (expected)
#2 – Comparable Acquisition Analysis using EV/Sales
Here we use the comparable acquisition method to find the value of Box IPO. for this, we make a note of all the transactions in a similar domain and their Enterprise Value to Sales ratio.
Below are some of the large M&A transactions in the recent past.
Based on the above comparable acquisition analysis, we can arrive at the following conclusions for Box Valuation –
- The mean Multiple of 7.4x implies a valuation of closer to $1.8 billion (implying a share price of $18.4/share)
- The highest Multiple of 9.7x implies a valuation of $2.4 billion (implying a share price of $24.7/share)
- The lowest Multiple of 4.1x implies a valuation of $1.1 billion (implying a share price of $9.3/share)
in the above, the Sales forecast used for Box is $248,38 million.
Limitations of Enterprise Value to Sales
EV / Sales is a good metric to find out whether to invest in a company or not. However, it’s based on many variables that may change in a matter of days. And it’s not recommended that the investors depend on a single ratio to decide for an investment. The investors should go ahead and look at different ratios to come up with concrete information before investing their money into any investment.
In the final analysis
If you know how to compute EV, you should never bank upon only market capitalization as the debt should also be considered in the equation.
