Public Markets
The FOCUS Communications Service Provider Index (CSPI) had a fourth straight reporting period with a positive return. However, this period’s gain of 1.3% was relatively modest and under-performed both the 5.8% gain in the S&P 500 and the 2.8% gain in the NASDAQ over the corresponding time frame. The CSPI is also up 27.6% for the full year. However, even with this substantial increase the sector still lags the S&P 500 (up 53.7%) and the NASDAQ (up 72.0%) by a wide margin. Sector multiples are significantly higher than they were at this time last year. The sector revenue multiple increased from 2.5x to 3.0x, and the sector EBITDA multiple jumped from 7.2x to 8.5x