Public Markets
The FOCUS Communications Service Provider Index (CSPI) managed to pull off a hat trick by posting its third straight reporting period with a strong gain. The sector was up 7.8% over the past three months. While a very good performance, it still managed to lag the 11.7% gain in the S&P 500 and the 15.4% gain in the NASDAQ over the corresponding time frame. This period’s gain was enough to bring the CSPI into the black for the full year period with a gain of 4.9%. Once again, this underperformed both the S&P 500 (up 16.3%) and the NASDAQ (up 43.6%). Sector multiples are slightly higher than at this same time last year. The sector revenue multiple closed out the period at 3.1x (up from 3.0x a year ago) and the sector EBITDA multiple ended at 8.7x (up from 8.4x a year ago).