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What Does TTM Mean in Finance?

Charlie Brooks

Jun 16, 2022 14:14

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In finance, small business owners and individuals in the sector should know and understand a couple of terms. Most words that are frequently used in business generally, do you know the exact meaning of all of them? 


Perhaps, you may think it isn't necessary to know them. Well, if you don't know what most words mean in finance, then you may find it difficult to apply them in the course of your finance journey. 


Based on this post's scope, we'll focus on TTM, a term used in business, but the aim is to reveal what it means in finance. Using TTM figures is helpful because it allows you to evaluate the most recent annualized numbers, reducing the effects of seasonality. With TTM, you can view a full year of up-to-date financials at any time of the year.

What does TTM mean in finance?

The acronym TTM refers to a measurement of previous 12-month data. Typically, a TTM period refers to the 12 months before the current month or the 12 months preceding the most recent earnings report or other financial disclosure issued by the company.


Consider TTM data, a 12-month yardstick that firms and financial analysts use to gauge recent performance, separate from a company's fiscal year, the current calendar year, and a year-to-date (YTD) measure.


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TTM is a very versatile tool that may be used to balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow charts. Remember that the 12-month period referenced by any given TTM data varies across financial statements.


Ted Haley, CFP, president and CEO of Advanced Wealth Management in Portland, Oregon, said, "When examining returns, the trailing 12-month period is sometimes more illuminating than calendar years." "However, like everything else in finance, figures may be deceiving. Looking at returns 12 months after a crisis's worst, for instance, may make things seem terrific, but it may not reveal the complete picture.


The majority of their time is spent analyzing quarterly and yearly earnings reports, which, unlike TTM measurements, are related to the calendar quarter or year. TTM, on the other hand, gives quick, current, seasonally adjusted information on performance.

How do you find TTM?

Typically, the TTM metric will be recorded on the balance sheet. Generally, it is performed quarterly to conform with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). However, there are other experts who, for instance, opt to use the average of the first and fourth quarters.


However, what about cash flow statement line items such as dividend payments, capital expenditures, and working capital? These should be handled according to their financial statement of origin. For instance, working capital is often calculated as an average of balance sheet line items.


It is also vital to note that quarterly depreciation is subtracted from income. Consequently, an analyst may only examine the previous four quarters of an income statement.

Where to find the TTM?

According to accounting rules, credit sheets must be updated periodically. Nonetheless, analysts adopt an average for more accuracy. This provides them with a key to more recent data that accurately represents current financial situations without compromising core concepts such as GAAP.


The money flow report consists of line items such as working capital, adjustments, depreciation, and bonus amounts. These should be evaluated based on the functionality of the financial data with which they are associated.


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Therefore, achieving this might impact how a critic evaluates certain aspects of a company's finances. For instance, if you need to know what may happen with your quarterly results, it makes appropriate to examine four quarters' worth of data while examining components such as operating money and rewards. Because these two are not reported in profit and loss statements until the year after their inclusion on credit sheets.

What can be measured in TTM?

TTM data may be used in a variety of settings and reports, so what you measure will rely heavily on your objectives. One apparent reference point is your key performance indicators (KPIs). Your TTM data may help you evaluate how effectively you're reaching these goals without the lag caused by prior data or the possible influence of changing seasons and events within that time period.


Similarly, TTM data may help you maintain a closer watch on sales growth and margins, mitigating some of the volatility that often occurs between various seasons and financial periods. In certain instances, it may also be utilized to examine your sales numbers and price-to-earnings ratio, which might be of special interest to your shareholders.

How is TTM calculated?

No financial calculation is simple; all you need is the proper approach and formula to determine what is anticipated. Depending on your understanding of finance, the method for determining TTM is much less complex here. One way of calculating data from the previous twelve months is to add the three months that result from trailing the fiscal year by the prior four quarters.


For example, if you wanted to do a TTM calculation in April 2021, you would start with the first quarter, which concludes in March 2021. Then, you will add the next three quarters. (This indicates that you will include the next year's Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q1.)


The mathematical procedure is used to compute TTM.


TTM = Latest Q + Q1 (recent) + Q2 (recent) + Q3 (recent)


Or


TTM = Most recent quarter + Last full year – Corresponding quarter last year.


Occasionally, firms should not compute TTM for the period in which their most recent annual report was produced. Therefore, this situation suggests that TTM data is identical to annual financials.

TTM's significance in finance

As previously indicated, TTM data are especially crucial when your yearly or quarterly numbers are out of date or if your firm has had a substantial shift in its growth or profitability in the most recent period. TTM data also mitigates the influence of seasonal fluctuations and provides a better view of the company's overall performance.


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Your TTM information is especially important for sharing with stakeholders and investors since it provides a clear picture of the present state of the firm. It is also critically essential internally, especially when developing long-term and short-term plans and objectives. Having TTM data ensures that choices are based on the company's present reality, as opposed to old information that may have been derived from a radically different context - as proven by the significant effect seen by many organizations in 2020.

Why do companies use TTM in their financial statements?

Utilizing the TTM approach to monitor a firm's progress may be quite useful for identifying operational patterns or estimating corporate costs or profits. Here are three reasons why business owners and executives evaluate a company's success using TTM data:


1. TTM can assist company owners in comprehending their organization's financial health in the most current and accurate manner possible. Observing how the prior year's financial performance carried over into this year may be more beneficial than just reviewing the previous year's financial statements. Combining what you had last year with what you have now might provide a significantly more accurate picture.


2. The smaller and less recent your financial data collection, the less probable it is that you will be able to determine what is or is not usual for your organization. Some organizations see annual fluctuations in their price-to-earnings ratio, overall revenue growth, and working capital. It is easy to misread such data if you simply examine obsolete information or data from the last few quarters. By evaluating your TTM sales and other variables, you may determine whether you are in a regular seasonality cycle or going toward an anomaly or a decline.


3. To see the big picture: Reviewing the TTM of your financials may help you plan for the long term, but concentrating just on the past (whether that's the previous fiscal year or the current quarter) may prevent you from preparing as effectively and comprehensively as you might. By using accounting concepts such as TTM, you may better comprehend what this bigger but more precise scope of data reveals about your company's possible future.

TTM revenue and TTM yield

TTM revenue refers to the total amount of revenue earned in the trailing twelve months. Whether you want to establish if a firm has seen considerable top-line growth, it may be necessary to use this data. This is because the data can pinpoint precisely where the increase originated.


A TTM yield will refer to the total proportion of income delivered to investors by a portfolio over the last twelve months. This is based on the previous year. And it is used to examine items like exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual fund performance. The TTM yield may be determined by calculating the weighted average of all yields.


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And this is done for all of the yields included inside a fund. Whether it is a bond, stock, or another sort of fund makes no difference.

Three examples of TTM measures

TTM is applicable to a vast array of financial data. Let's examine the application of TTM to revenue, yield, and P/E ratios.


TTM earnings. The sum of a company's revenues during the last 12 months. This might be interest income and other fees for a bank, while net sales for a manufacturing or retail business. A TTM revenue figure gives a more accurate depiction of current performance than the company's most recent annual or quarterly sales report, which might be several months old.


TTM output. The TTM yield of a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) is the proportion of income delivered to investors over the past 12 months. The TTM yield of a fund is determined by averaging the yields of the assets comprising its portfolio.


TTM price-to-earnings ratio, also known as trailing P/E, analyzes a company's P/E ratio over the last 12 months. It is derived by dividing the current stock price by the four-quarter average earnings per share (EPS). By examining the trailing P/E ratio, investors may determine if a company is pricey or inexpensive relative to its earnings prospects.

TTM vs LTM

LTM refers to the twelve-month period immediately preceding the current period. Often referred to as the trailing twelve months.


Many organizations may reference LTM when discussing debt-to-equity (D/E) ratios or sales in their financial performance.


In the big scheme of things, twelve months is hardly a long period to assess a firm. The optimal time span is five to ten years, although Wall Street's emphasis on the short term makes LTM and TTM fairly frequent.


The greatest advantage of TTM is that it reflects the most current performance of an organization. And when combined with longer-term comparisons, it provides a valuable framework.


TTM data also serve to balance out seasonal fluctuations in performance, potential short-term price volatility, and, more recently, short market swings.


Consider the effect of the Christmas season on the retail business or the influence of summer vacations on the tourism industry. If you concentrate on a retailer's June or December quarterly figures, your analysis may be skewed higher or lower than reality. Utilizing TTM helps to reduce these variances.


TTM or LTM data give more recent measurements than those presented in yearly or quarterly reports.


In essence, the terms trailing twelve months (TTM) and last twelve months (LTM) are identical. And much of it will rely on how the various businesses decide to publish their figures.

When not to use trailing 12 months analysis

Your bookkeeper or accountant may only calculate and make complex accounting entries periodically or yearly for certain firms. Before generating these entries, doing a trailing 12-month study on your financial statements might lead to erroneous assumptions about your company's financial status.


In addition, not every company owner has access to the software their bookkeeper or accountant uses. In this instance, you would need to manually calculate the trailing 12 months using the financial documents they have given, and this is not only tedious but also prone to mistakes.

Having a discussion with your accountant or bookkeeper may quickly remedy both of these difficulties. Inform them that you want to conduct a trailing 12-month computation on your firm so they can ensure that your data is accurate. They may even do the analysis and provide consultation to analyze the findings.


However, there is one instance in which you should not utilize a trailing 12-month calculation: when determining your tax due for the current year. Even if you make quarterly anticipated tax payments, your tax burden is only determined annually for the current tax year. Using trailing 12-month computations to determine your anticipated tax payments might cause you to overpay or underpay estimated taxes. Use your most recent year-to-date financial statements to determine your tax obligation.

The bottom line

TTM is a common measure not just because it encompasses a relevant time period but also because it is a need. The typical window of analysis in finance is a whole year, yet during three out of four periods each year, corporations do not publish earnings for the entire year; only when they submit a 10-K report with the SEC do we see 12-month statistics. As a company owner or stakeholder, it is crucial to have access to all financial information that might impact the organization's financial decisions. Therefore, when the time to make a choice approaches and the most current financial statement is unavailable, it is appropriate to use TTM data. Thank you for reading this article; we hope you now understand what TTM stands for and extract additional business-beneficial knowledge.

FAQs

What is the TTM?

The term Trailing Twelve Months refers to the past twelve consecutive months of a company's financial data prior to the time a report is prepared.

How do analysts use the TTM?

Analysts often analyze TTM data because it provides the most accurate annualized assessment of a company's performance over a prolonged period of time.

Is a higher TTM yield better?

TTM yield provides a better estimate but does not account for the impact of recent portfolio revisions or bond price movements on a fund's future yield. The 30-day SEC Yield calculation is more involved (go here and search for "30-day").

Is TTM an estimate?

In financial reporting, the trailing twelve months (TTM) refers to a company's performance data for the past twelve months. The trailing twelve months is a valuable tool for assessing annualized financial data for businesses.