Quale comparable per la valutazione tramite multipli delle imprese italiane?

The aim of this paper is to investigate on a sample of firms listed on Italian Stock Exchange from 2000 to 2006 which comparables selection method generates the most precise forecasts when valuing with price/earnings, price/book value, price/sales, enterprise value/EBIT and enterprise value/FCF multiples. Comparables firms are selected based on industry membership, industry and size, industry and ROA, ROA and size and averaging with the arithmetic mean, median and harmonic mean, therefore are analyze twelve multiple valuation methods. The empirical results suggest that valuation with a selection of comparable firms on the basis of industry and ROA or industry and size is more accuracy; moreover, valuation improves when multiples are averaged using median relative to arithmetic and harmonic mean.