Hi David
EBITDA may or may not be earnings; I guess it's a question of what you mean by earnings. To me, what's important is whether the company has any money left for me as a shareholder after they've paid off everyone else. And when the bankers and bondholders want their interest, and when the company has to set aside cash to upgrade their technology to stay competitive, (taxes hardly ever matter when you're really not making money and nobody cares about amortization of goodwill anymore), as far as I'm concerned, the company isn't making any money and I'll avoid it as an investment. I'm thinking of CVC, AES, LAMR and other such stocks. You can buy them if you want; I hope in the case of the first two, that you did not. I prefer to measure my buys by GAAP, and even then I keep a wary eye on goodwill and other potential pitfalls. I also stay away from leveraged companies, unless I see a very good probability of profit (not "earnings"). Likewise, I've lately been staying away from CNBC most of the time, in favor of Bloomberg, and even then, I mostly keep the sound way down. |
