P/S, P/B, P/CF: what the metrics mean
Price to sales, to book value and to cash flow — for when there are no earnings or they swing too much to measure from.
Price / Sales (TTM) — market cap to sales
The price of all the shares divided by annual sales. Unlike EV / Sales, it ignores debt entirely — which is why a heavily indebted company looks deceptively cheap on it.
Price / Sales (FWD) — to estimated sales
Market cap divided by next year's consensus sales.
Price / Book (TTM) — price to book equity
How the market values the company's equity from the balance sheet. Meaningful for banks, insurers and REITs, where the balance sheet is the business. For a company whose assets are a brand, code and people, equity is barely on the balance sheet, and the multiple inflates by itself, saying nothing.
Price / Book (FWD) — to expected equity
Price to book equity as it is expected at the end of next year.
Price / Cash Flow (TTM) — price to cash flow
Share price to operating cash flow per share. Cash flow is harder to “touch up” with accounting policy than earnings, so for companies with aggressive accounting it is a more reliable measure of how expensive they are.
Price / Cash Flow (FWD) — the forward version
Price to the operating cash flow per share expected next year.