The 2026 U.S. industry multiples table below gives you EV/EBITDA and EV/Revenue medians and quartiles across major sectors, compiled from Damodaran’s NYU Stern dataset, KPMG’s multiples database, and Bizminer’s NAICS-granular benchmarks. Pick your sector, normalize EBITDA for add-backs and one-time items, then apply company-specific adjustments for size, growth, and risk before you land on a number.
Pro Tip: Always use medians and quartiles, not means. Valuation distributions skew heavily in most sectors because a handful of high-growth outliers pull the mean well above what a typical company actually trades at. The median is the number you want.
The downloadable table in the next section covers the full industry list with raw figures, data dates, and sample filters. If you are valuing a private company, cross-check the public-market multiples here against closed-deal transaction comps, since private-company SDE and EBITDA multiples for small businesses commonly run below the public-market benchmarks shown.
Key Takeaways
Industry valuation multiples are starting points, not conclusions: normalize EBITDA, apply size and growth adjustments, and cross-check with transaction comps before you finalize any number.
| Point | Details |
|---|---|
| Use medians, not means | Skewed sector distributions make means unreliable; quartiles show where most companies actually trade. |
| Public vs. private discount | Private companies typically trade at a 20%–40% discount to public-market medians due to illiquidity and scale differences. |
| EBITDA normalization first | Add-backs for owner compensation, one-time items, and personal expenses must be completed before applying any multiple. |
| Match the multiple to the situation | Use EV/EBITDA for profitable firms, EV/Revenue for negative-EBITDA sectors, and EV/EBIT for capex-heavy businesses. |
| Bizminer for NAICS precision | Bizminer’s NAICS-granular benchmarks provide U.S.-specific, court-accepted data that broad sector medians cannot match. |
Table of Contents
- 2026 U.S. industry valuation multiples: the core data table
- How to choose the right multiple: EV/EBITDA vs. EV/Revenue vs. EV/EBIT
- Methodology: how these multiples are compiled and what to watch for
- Industry-specific notes: what drives multiples in each sector
- Common adjustments before applying a multiple to a specific company
- Why multiples can mislead: warnings and common misuses
- Why Bizminer data matters for U.S. private-company valuations
- The multiple is the last thing you set, not the first
- Bizminer gives you NAICS-level benchmarks built for U.S. valuation work
- Sources
2026 U.S. industry valuation multiples: the core data table
The figures below reflect U.S. public-company trading multiples. Damodaran’s dataset covers thousands of firms across sectors, making it the most widely cited public-market benchmark for sector valuation multiples in the United States. EV/Revenue is shown where EBITDA is frequently negative or near zero for the sector.
Download note: The full table with additional NAICS-level granularity, raw figures, and sample sizes is available through Bizminer’s market and industry research platform. The in-article table above uses sector-level ranges; NAICS 6-digit granularity narrows those ranges considerably for private-company work.
EV/Revenue appears in rows where EBITDA is structurally negative or near zero for a material portion of the sector (biotech pipelines, early-stage e-commerce). For profitable, established companies in those sectors, EV/EBITDA remains the preferred metric.
Source note: Public-company multiples are derived from Damodaran’s NYU Stern dataset (approximately 5,994 total market firms) and cross-referenced against KPMG’s trading multiples. Ranges reflect median estimates; actual medians shift with market conditions, interest rates, and sector rotation.
How to choose the right multiple: EV/EBITDA vs. EV/Revenue vs. EV/EBIT
The short answer: use EV/EBITDA when the company is profitable and capital-light, EV/Revenue when EBITDA is negative or the sector is early-stage, and EV/EBIT when capex intensity is the central valuation question.
Decision rules by situation:
- Profitable company, asset-light: EV/EBITDA is your primary metric. It strips out financing and tax differences, making cross-company comparison clean.
- Negative or near-zero EBITDA: EV/Revenue avoids the distortion of dividing by a near-zero or negative denominator. Common in biotech, early SaaS, and high-growth e-commerce.
- Capex-heavy business (manufacturing, utilities, telecom): EV/EBIT captures depreciation as a real economic cost, not an add-back. A manufacturer with $10M EBITDA but $6M in annual capex looks very different on EV/EBIT than on EV/EBITDA.
- Small business / Main Street sale: Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE) multiples are more relevant than EV/EBITDA. SDE adds back owner compensation and personal expenses, reflecting what a working owner-operator actually earns.
A quick micro-example: a regional HVAC company with $2M EBITDA and $800K in annual equipment replacement capex should be benchmarked on EV/EBIT (or at minimum, EV/EBITDA with a capex haircut) rather than raw EV/EBITDA, because the depreciation add-back overstates true free cash flow.
Pros and cons at a glance:
| Multiple | Best for | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| EV/EBITDA | Profitable, capital-light firms; cross-sector comparison | Ignores capex; distorted by heavy D&A |
| EV/Revenue | Negative EBITDA; early-stage; high-growth sectors | Ignores profitability entirely |
| EV/EBIT | Capex-intensive industries | Affected by depreciation method differences |
| SDE multiple | Small business / owner-operated sales | Not comparable to institutional deals |
Pro Tip: *After you select your primary multiple, run EV/Revenue as a sanity check.
Methodology: how these multiples are compiled and what to watch for
The multiples in this article are U.S. public-company trading multiples, not closed-deal transaction multiples. That distinction matters more than most practitioners acknowledge.
Data sources, geography, and date:
Public-company multiples come from Damodaran’s NYU Stern dataset (updated annually; the most recent published snapshot covers data through early 2025 for the 2026 reference year), KPMG’s industry multiples database, and Bizminer’s NAICS-level benchmarks drawn from both public and private datasets. All figures are U.S.-denominated in USD. Sector taxonomy follows a combination of GICS (for Damodaran) and NAICS (for Bizminer), which means sector definitions can differ slightly between sources.
Inclusion and exclusion rules:
- Positive EBITDA requirement: Most sector medians exclude firms with negative EBITDA. Where a sector has a high proportion of negative-EBITDA firms (biotech, early SaaS), EV/Revenue is reported instead.
- Outlier trimming: Extreme multiples (typically above the 95th percentile or below the 5th percentile) are excluded to prevent distortion. A single acquisition-inflated outlier can shift a sector mean by several turns.
- EV calculation convention: Enterprise Value = market cap + total debt + preferred equity + minority interest, minus cash and cash equivalents. Analysts should verify net debt adjustments from SEC filings when building company-specific comps.
- Currency: USD only. Non-U.S. listed firms are excluded from the U.S. dataset.
- Sector mapping: GICS sectors (Damodaran) are broader than NAICS codes (Bizminer). A GICS “Healthcare” sector includes hospitals, managed care, and medical devices in one bucket; Bizminer’s NAICS granularity separates those into distinct benchmarks.
Source summary:
Limitations: Public-company multiples carry a liquidity premium that private companies do not earn. Transaction multiples from closed deals are a better benchmark for M&A pricing, but they are harder to access and often lag by 6–12 months. Cross-check public multiples against transaction comps whenever a deal is in process.
Industry-specific notes: what drives multiples in each sector
Multiple dispersion within a sector almost always comes down to a handful of operational drivers, not random market noise. Understanding those drivers tells you whether a specific company should trade at the high or low end of its sector range.
Software / SaaS
SaaS commands the highest EV/Revenue multiples of any sector because investors are paying for recurring, predictable cash flows that compound over time. The key driver is the Rule of 40: revenue growth rate plus EBITDA margin should equal or exceed 40%. McKinsey’s analysis found that top-quartile SaaS companies generate nearly three times the EV/Revenue multiples of bottom-quartile peers, with LTM free cash flow percentage and ARR growth as the metrics most correlated with premium pricing.
Pro Tip: *For SaaS valuations, always calculate Rule of 40 on a trailing twelve-month basis before applying a sector multiple.
Healthcare services
Reimbursement risk is the dominant factor. Businesses tied to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates face regulatory exposure that caps multiples relative to commercial-payer-heavy peers. Physician practice management groups and behavioral health platforms have attracted higher multiples in recent years due to consolidation dynamics, but those premiums compress quickly when reimbursement rates shift.
Retail and e-commerce
Brick-and-mortar retail trades at thin EV/EBITDA multiples because margins are structurally low and lease obligations inflate enterprise value. E-commerce businesses trade higher when they demonstrate customer acquisition cost efficiency and repeat purchase rates.
Manufacturing and industrials
Capex intensity is the central variable. Asset-heavy manufacturers with high maintenance capex should be valued on EV/EBIT or EV/EBITDA with a capex haircut. Businesses with proprietary processes, long-term contracts, or specialized equipment tend to trade at the upper end of the sector range. Commodity-exposed manufacturers compress toward the low end during downturns.
Construction
Backlog quality matters more than revenue size. A construction firm with $50M in contracted backlog from creditworthy public-sector clients trades at a higher multiple than one with the same revenue from speculative residential projects. Contract type (fixed-price vs. cost-plus) also affects risk perception significantly.
Financials and insurance
EV/EBITDA is not applicable to banks, insurance companies, or most financial services firms because debt is a raw material of the business, not a financing choice. Use price-to-earnings (P/E) or price-to-book (P/B) for these sectors. Bizminer’s Finance & Insurance benchmarks provide NAICS-level financial ratios appropriate for this sector.
Restaurants and hospitality
Unit economics drive everything. Same-store sales growth, average unit volume, and four-wall EBITDA margins determine whether a concept trades at a premium or discount to the sector median. Franchise businesses typically trade at higher multiples than company-owned restaurant groups because the capital-light model generates more predictable royalty streams.
Energy and commodities
Commodity price cycles compress and expand multiples dramatically. Oil and gas producers trade at low EV/EBITDA multiples during commodity downturns and spike during supply shocks. Midstream and pipeline businesses, with fee-based revenue, trade at more stable multiples than upstream producers. Analysts should use a normalized commodity price assumption rather than spot prices when applying multiples to energy companies.
When not to use a simple industry multiple: Owner-dependent businesses where revenue walks out the door if the founder leaves, single-customer concentration above 30% of revenue, or businesses with non-recurring revenue spikes in the trailing twelve months all require significant multiple discounts or alternative valuation methods. A standard industry EBITDA multiple applied without adjustment to these situations will overstate value materially.
Common adjustments before applying a multiple to a specific company
Apply the industry multiple only after you normalize earnings and account for company-specific risk. The raw sector median is a starting point, not a conclusion.
Step-by-step adjustment checklist:
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Normalize EBITDA with add-backs. Remove one-time expenses (legal settlements, restructuring costs, pandemic-era losses), add back excess owner compensation above market rate, and strip out personal expenses run through the business. This is the most important step and the one most often done sloppily.
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Convert SDE to EBITDA if relevant. For businesses under $5M in revenue, sellers often present Seller’s Discretionary Earnings. Convert to EBITDA by adding back one market-rate management salary before applying institutional multiples. Mixing SDE and EBITDA multiples is a common and costly error.
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Apply a size or scale discount. Public-company multiples reflect large, liquid, diversified businesses. Private companies, especially those under $10M in EBITDA, typically trade at a 20%–40% discount to public-market medians due to illiquidity, concentration risk, and limited management depth. The smaller the company, the larger the discount.
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Adjust for growth premium or discount. A company growing revenue at 25% annually deserves a premium to the sector median; one with flat or declining revenue deserves a discount. For SaaS, the Rule of 40 is the standard framework for quantifying this adjustment.
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Adjust for capital intensity. If the business requires significant ongoing capex to maintain earnings, reduce the multiple or switch to EV/EBIT. A manufacturer with $3M EBITDA and $1.5M annual capex has very different economics than a software company with the same EBITDA.
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Convert EV to equity value. Subtract net debt (total debt minus cash) and add back any excess working capital or non-operating assets. This step converts enterprise value to the equity check a buyer actually writes.
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Account for deal structure. Earn-outs, seller notes, and rollover equity all affect the effective multiple paid. A deal structured as 7x EBITDA with 30% in a seller note at below-market interest rates is economically different from a clean 7x all-cash transaction.
Pro Tip: *In practice, many buyers layer earn-outs rather than adjusting the headline multiple downward.
Why multiples can mislead: warnings and common misuses
Industry multiples are useful for establishing a range. They are dangerous when treated as a precise answer.
The most common mistake is applying public-company multiples directly to small private businesses without a size discount. A software company with $500K in EBITDA does not trade at the same multiple as Salesforce. Public-company multiples reflect scale, liquidity, management depth, and diversification that most private companies simply do not have. The gap between public and private multiples for small businesses is substantial and well-documented in closed-deal data.
Using means instead of medians in skewed sectors is another frequent error. In software and biotech, a small number of high-multiple outliers pull the mean far above the median. An analyst who benchmarks against the mean in these sectors will systematically overvalue average companies.
Red flags that require immediate multiple adjustment:
- Customer concentration above 25%–30% in a single client
- Revenue spikes in the trailing twelve months from non-recurring contracts
- Owner-dependent operations with no second-tier management
- Negative or near-zero EBITDA with no clear path to profitability
- Significant off-balance-sheet obligations (operating leases, contingent liabilities)
Applying a sector EV/EBITDA multiple to a company with negative EBITDA produces a meaningless or negative enterprise value. Switch to EV/Revenue or a DCF approach when EBITDA is not a reliable earnings proxy. The CFA Institute’s valuation frameworks recommend DCF as a cross-check precisely because multiples break down at the edges of the distribution.
Ignoring capital intensity is particularly damaging in manufacturing and energy valuations. Two companies with identical EBITDA can have radically different free cash flow profiles depending on their capex requirements. The multiple that looks appropriate for one is too generous for the other.
Finally, cross-industry comparisons almost never work. Sector context is not optional.
Why Bizminer data matters for U.S. private-company valuations
Bizminer provides NAICS-granular U.S. benchmarks that practitioners use in valuation work, including contexts where data quality is formally scrutinized. Bizminer’s data is accepted in U.S. Tax Court and used by government agencies, which reflects a level of methodological rigor that generic sector averages do not meet.
The practical difference between a GICS sector median and a NAICS 6-digit benchmark is significant. Damodaran’s “Healthcare” sector lumps hospitals, medical device manufacturers, and outpatient clinics into one bucket. Bizminer’s NAICS granularity separates those into distinct markets, each with its own financial ratios, revenue benchmarks, and margin profiles. For a valuation of a specific outpatient physical therapy practice, the NAICS-level benchmark is materially more accurate than the broad sector median.
How Bizminer fits into a valuation workflow:
- Pull the NAICS-level median EV/EBITDA and financial ratios from Bizminer’s industry research platform as your private-market starting point.
- Cross-check against Damodaran’s public-company sector median to understand the public/private spread.
- Apply company-specific adjustments (size, growth, concentration, capex) as outlined in the adjustment checklist above.
- Use Bizminer’s NAICS benchmarks to support normalization: if the industry median EBITDA margin is 12% and your subject company reports 22%, you need to explain that gap or adjust for it.
- For regulatory or litigation contexts, Bizminer’s documented data sourcing methodology provides the audit trail that courts and agencies require.
Pro Tip: When you present a valuation in a dispute or negotiation, the question “where did that benchmark come from?” will be asked. Bizminer’s NAICS-level reports with documented methodology answer that question cleanly. A generic internet search for “average EBITDA multiple by industry” does not.
Combining Bizminer’s private-market granularity with Damodaran’s public-market breadth gives you a defensible range rather than a single point estimate. The private-market benchmark anchors the floor; the public-market multiple, discounted for size and liquidity, anchors the ceiling.
The multiple is the last thing you set, not the first
The most common valuation mistake I see is anchoring to a sector multiple before the earnings are clean. The problem is that reported EBITDA for a private company almost always includes owner-specific expenses, one-time items, and accounting choices that have nothing to do with the business’s true earnings power. The multiple is precise; the denominator is fiction.
The second mistake is treating the sector median as a target rather than a midpoint. Half the companies in any sector trade below the median. If you cannot articulate why your subject company belongs above it, you have not done the work.
In sale discussions, the most effective defense of a premium multiple is not arguing about the multiple itself. It is showing the buyer a clean EBITDA bridge from reported to normalized, a recurring revenue schedule with retention metrics, and a customer concentration analysis that demonstrates the revenue is not dependent on one relationship. Buyers discount what they cannot verify. Give them the verification.
For LOIs and term sheets, anchor the multiple to a specific trailing period (typically LTM EBITDA) and define what adjustments are included. Leaving “normalized EBITDA” undefined in a term sheet is an invitation for a renegotiation at closing.
Bizminer gives you NAICS-level benchmarks built for U.S. valuation work
Most valuation workflows start with a sector median and end with a guess. Bizminer closes that gap with NAICS-granular benchmarks across 9,000+ U.S. markets, giving analysts and advisors the specific, defensible data that broad sector averages cannot provide.
Where Damodaran gives you a public-market sector floor and KPMG gives you transaction context, Bizminer gives you the private-market NAICS benchmark that actually matches the company you are valuing. The reports include financial ratios, margin benchmarks, and revenue profiles at a granularity that holds up in negotiations, audits, and courtroom settings. Bizminer data is accepted in U.S. Tax Court, which is a standard most data providers cannot meet.
For analysts who need to move fast, Bizminer’s industry search tool lets you locate the right NAICS code and pull a benchmark report in minutes. For advisors building a full valuation package, custom reports are available with tailored financial profiles, SWOT analysis, and prospect data. Start with a sample report at Bizminer’s research platform to see the depth of data available for your sector.
Sources
The sources below are the primary references for U.S. industry multiples work. Each serves a distinct role in a valuation workflow.
- Enterprise Value Multiples by Sector (US)
- Industry-specific EBIT and EBITDA multiples – KPMG Atlas
- SaaS and the Rule of 40: Keys to the critical value creation metric
- Business Valuation Calculator: What Is My Business Worth in 2026? – Sophisticated Investor
When to use each source: Start with Bizminer for NAICS-level private-market context, cross-check with Damodaran for public-market benchmarks, verify deal pricing with KPMG transaction multiples, and pull primary financial data from SEC filings. The downloadable full-sector table referenced in this article is available through Bizminer’s industry research platform.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified financial advisor. Consult a qualified financial professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
