After two straight periods of decline, the FOCUS Telecom Business Services Index (TBSI) rebounded in our winter reporting period to deliver a strong three-month gain of 15.0%. This handily outperformed both the 7.1% gain in the S&P 500 and the 1.0% drop in the NASDAQ over the corresponding time period. Even with this period’s gains, the TBSI remains in the red for the full 12-month period with a loss of 11.5%. On the bright side, this still outperforms the 19.4% drop in the S&P 500 and the 33.1% drop in the NASDAQ over the past year. Sector multiples are lower than they were a year ago, but only by the narrowest of margins. The sector revenue multiple slipped from 1.0x to 0.9x, while the sector EBITDA multiple inched down from 11.0x to 10.9x.

The FOCUS Carrier-Focused Telecom Technology Index (CFTTI) gained 4.8% in the past three months. This com-fortably exceeded both the 3.2% gain in the S&P 500 and the 3.0% decline in the NASDAQ. Even with this period’s gain, the CFTTI is still down 11.9% year-over-year. This performance was slightly worse than the 10.7% decline in the S&P 500 over this same time period, but much better than the 26.2% loss in the NASDAQ. Sector multiples are lower than they were a year ago, but not by a wide margin. The CFTTI revenue multiple dipped from 2.5x to 2.3x, while the EBITDA multiple fell from 12.0x to 11.4x.

The FOCUS Telecom Business Services Index (TBSI) suffered a negative return for the second straight reporting period with a 4.1% decline. While disappointing, the sector still managed to outperform the 5.3% decline in the S&P 500 and stay even with the 4.1% drop in the NASDAQ. The situation is similar for the full year period. While the sub sector is down 16.1% over the past 12 months, it still outperformed the S&P 500 (down 16.8%) and the NASDAQ (down 26.8%). Sector multiples closed out the period at 0.8x revenue and 9.7x EBITDA. Both of these are lower than year-ago multiples of 1.0x revenue and 10.4x EBITDA.