Income Statement
What is EBITDA?
Operating profit before depreciation and amortisation are deducted, a rough proxy for the cash the operations throw off before investment.
How it is calculated
Operating income plus depreciation and amortisation.
How to read it
Useful for comparing businesses with different asset intensity and for leverage ratios like net debt to EBITDA. It is not cash flow: capital spending and working capital still have to be paid for.
Keep in mind
Companies do not report EBITDA under GAAP, so it is always composed: operating income plus depreciation and amortisation, or, when operating income is missing, net income plus interest, tax and depreciation. It will differ from the adjusted EBITDA management quotes.
Where the numbers come from
Scrutar computes EBITDA from the figures each company reports to the SEC in its annual and quarterly filings, using the XBRL data attached to those filings.