Valuation multiples are the quickest way to value a company, and are useful in comparing similar companies (comparable company analysis). They attempt to capture many of a firm's operating and financial characteristics (e.g. expected growth) in a single number that can be mutiplied by some financial metric (e.g. EBITDA) to yield an enterprise or equity value. Multiples are expressed as a ratio of capital investment to a financial metric attributable to providers of that capital.

Enterprise value multiples are better than equity value multiples because the former allow for direct comparison of different firms, regardless of capital structure. Recall, that the value of a firm is theoretically independent of capital structure. Equity value multiples, on the other hand, are influenced by leverage. For example, highly levered firms generally have higher P/E multiples because their expected returns on equity are higher. Additionally, EV multiples are typically less affected by accounting differences, since the denominator is computed higher up on the income statement.