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Acc 561 Week 3 Ebta Essay

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Wednesday May 25 at 10:01pm Manage Discussion Entry Glenn reply to Instructor follow-up Question week 3 DQ 2 o EBITDA - Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is an indicator of a company's financial performance which is calculated in the following manner: ("EBITDA - Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization Definition | Investopedia," n.d.) EBITDA = Revenue - Expenses (excluding tax, interest, depreciation and amortization). EBITDA is essentially net income with interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization added back to it, and can be used to analyze and compare profitability between companies and industries because it eliminates the effects of financing and accounting decisions. ("EBITDA - …show more content…

EBITDA is a good metric to evaluate profitability, but not cash flow. EBITDA also leaves out the cash required to fund working capital and the replacement of old equipment, which can be significant. Consequently, EBITDA is often used as an accounting gimmick to dress up a company's earnings. When using this metric, it's key that investors also focus on other performance measures to make sure the company is not trying to hide something with EBITDA. ("EBITDA - Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization Definition | Investopedia," n.d.) I would not use EBITDA in my analysis for picking a portfolio. EBITDA figures can be highly misleading, it's easy to manipulate and should be taken with a pinch of salt. This can be said for most financial metrics, but few are as easily and frequently manipulated as EBITDA. ("EBITDA - Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization Definition | Investopedia," n.d.) Warren Buffett and other famous investors have spoken out about their dislike of the EBITDA standard. Buffett in particular wrote about the financial metric within his 2000 and 2002 annual reports to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders: (Hargreaves,

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