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Screening & comparison · Comparable company analysis

Comparable company analysis: run a comps analysis and peer valuation on any ticker

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Thesis, bull and bear case, key metrics, comparables and risk flags, synthesized into one structured tear-sheet.

Sample output is illustrative. Not financial advice.

Illustrative only

Thesis

Bull case

Bear case

Key metrics

illustrative

illustrative price trend, not live data

Comparables

Risk flags

Informational only · sample output, not live market data · not financial advice.

Comparable company analysis, usually shortened to comps, is the fastest honest answer to the question of whether a stock is expensive. Instead of forecasting cash flows a decade out, you ask what the market currently pays for very similar businesses and check whether this one trades above or below that. The technique is simple. Doing it well is not, because the entire result depends on which companies you decide are comparable and whether you noticed why one of them is different.

Investables.ai builds that comparison for you. Enter a ticker and it assembles a peer set, lines up the trading multiples that matter for that kind of business, shows where the company sits in the range, and explains the differences in growth, margin, leverage and business mix that would justify a premium or a discount. Then it argues both sides, because a stock trading at a discount to its peers is sometimes cheap and sometimes broken. It is informational research, not investment advice.

STOCKS ETFS CRYPTO STARTUPS

Both sides bull and bear

Risk flags on every card

The short answer

What is comparable company analysis?

Comparable company analysis values a business by comparing its trading multiples, such as EV/EBITDA, P/E and EV/Sales, against a set of similar public companies. If peers trade at 12 times EBITDA and the target trades at 8, the analysis asks whether that gap is a mispricing or a fair reflection of weaker growth, thinner margins or more debt. Investables.ai builds the peer set and the multiple comparison on any ticker.

Last updated August 2026

Why it works

What separates a useful comps analysis from a misleading one

The peer set is the analysis

Comps built from companies that merely share a sector label produce noise. A real peer set matches business model, revenue mix, growth rate, margin structure and size, and the analysis has to say out loud why each company qualifies.

A discount is a question, not a conclusion

Trading below the peer group means the market disagrees with the peer group about something. The work is identifying what: slower growth, worse returns on capital, more debt, a governance problem, or an actual mispricing.

Normalize before you compare

One-off charges, different fiscal year ends, stock compensation treatment and lease accounting can move a multiple enough to reverse the ranking. Comparing unadjusted numbers across a peer set is where most comps quietly go wrong.

What you get

The peer set built for you, and the reasons it differs

Comps live or die on which companies you call comparable. You get the peer group, the multiples that suit that business type, where the company sits in the range, and the growth, margin and leverage differences that would justify a premium or a discount.

  • Assembles a peer set with the reasoning for each inclusion
  • Lines up the trading multiples that suit that business model
  • Shows where the company sits in the peer range, not just the average
  • Explains growth, margin and leverage differences behind the gap
  • Flags when a low multiple looks like a value trap rather than value
  • Works alongside a full research card on the same ticker
NVDA NVIDIA Corp. Illustrative

Thesis

Dominant AI accelerator supplier. The debate is the durability of data-center demand versus a cyclical capex peak.

Bull

CUDA moat, near-monopoly share

Bear

Customer concentration, cycle risk

P/E 46.2 Rev +94% 3 risk flags

Side by side

Which multiple to use for which kind of company

Picking the wrong multiple is the fastest way to reach a confident wrong answer.

Multiple What it compares Best used for Where it misleads
EV / EBITDA Whole-company value to operating cash earnings Capital-intensive and leveraged businesses Ignores capex, so it flatters heavy-asset companies
P / E Share price to net earnings per share Mature, consistently profitable companies Breaks with losses, one-off charges or very different tax and debt levels
EV / Sales Whole-company value to revenue Unprofitable or early-stage growth companies Says nothing about whether the revenue is worth anything
EV / EBIT Value to operating profit after depreciation Comparing across different asset intensities Sensitive to depreciation policy differences
P / B Price to book equity Banks, insurers and asset-heavy financials Meaningless for capital-light or intangible-heavy businesses
P / FCF Price to free cash flow Businesses where accounting earnings are noisy Distorted in years with unusual working capital or capex swings

Multiples describe what the market currently pays for peers. They are not a valuation on their own and are not investment advice.

Why Investables.ai

A discount is a finding, not a conclusion

Trading below the peer group can mean the market is wrong, or that it has priced in something you have not found yet. The card argues both readings, so the comps table opens a question instead of closing one.

Both sides, every time

The bull case and the bear case sit side by side, so you weigh the argument instead of reading a single take. Informational only, never a recommendation.

Risks on the page

Valuation, concentration and regulatory risks are flagged explicitly, so the downside is visible up front rather than buried in a footnote.

Faster diligence

A structured first pass in seconds means you spend your time on judgement, not on gathering, across stocks, ETFs, crypto and startups.

Good questions

Questions about comparable company analysis

Start with business model rather than sector label: companies that make money the same way, serve similar customers, and face similar economics. Then filter for size, growth rate and margin profile so the comparison is like for like. A tight set of four to eight genuine peers beats a broad list of twenty loosely related names.
Comparable company analysis uses the current trading multiples of similar public companies, so it reflects what the market pays for a minority stake today. Precedent transaction analysis uses multiples paid in completed acquisitions, which include a control premium and reflect deal conditions at the time. Trading comps usually produce lower values than transaction comps.
Four to eight close peers is the practical range. Fewer than four makes the median hostage to one unusual company. More than eight usually means you have started including businesses that are not really comparable, which widens the range until it stops carrying information.
Usually for a reason the market has already priced: slower growth, weaker returns on capital, higher leverage, customer concentration, a governance or accounting concern, or a structurally worse position in the industry. Sometimes it is genuine neglect, particularly in smaller companies with no analyst coverage. Distinguishing the two is the entire job.
No. Comps tell you what the market pays for similar businesses right now, which is relative value, not intrinsic value. If the whole peer group is overpriced, comps will call an overpriced stock reasonable. Serious work pairs comps with a cash-flow based view and treats the two as a cross-check on each other.
Peer comps is shorthand for the same exercise: a set of similar public companies and the trading multiples each one currently commands, lined up so you can see where your company sits in the range. Analysts say peer comps when they mean the table itself, and comparable company analysis when they mean the reasoning behind it. The output is a median, a range and an explanation for the gap.
Three sources cover most of it. The company names its own competitors in the business and risk factor sections of its 10-K. Its SIC or GICS classification gives you a starting universe to filter. And the peer group listed in its proxy statement for executive compensation is often the most honest list, because the company chose it when the stakes were its own pay. Screen that pool by size, growth and margin, then justify each name you keep.
The mechanical half can be, and should be. Pulling financials, calculating multiples, aligning fiscal year ends and normalizing for one-off items is repetitive work software does faster and more consistently than a person. What does not automate cleanly is judgment: deciding that a company sharing a sector code is not actually a peer, or that a discount reflects a real structural problem. Investables.ai assembles the set and the multiples, then states the reasoning so you can overrule it.
A usable comparables report has four parts: the peer set with a stated reason for each inclusion, a multiples table covering the ratios that suit that business model, the median and range rather than just an average, and a written explanation of why the subject trades above or below the group. A report that gives you the table without the reasoning has done the arithmetic and skipped the analysis.
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Enter any ticker or asset and read the thesis, both sides of the argument and the risk flags in seconds. Built to make your own diligence faster. You decide, every time.

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Informational only, not financial advice · past performance does not guarantee future results