A grey area that apparently gets undiscussed. What is everyone observing in the contracting industry (construction, hvac, plumbing, electrical, new construction etc) with ttm vs annual revenue?

Coming out of the spike of###-###-#### , 2 consecutive years of unusual spike that could have been caused by backlogs, unfunded projects, waitlisted projects, wips, etc the brokers get excited in selling TTM financials to buyers. But by the time buyer reviews the business chances are the peak performing months fade away, especially when business has seasonality/cyclicality/project cycles. At this time the normal cycles kick in. That is the annual financials lets say Jan-December as against TTM October which may have seen a spike from a few in-season revenue trends.

Obviously the contracting industry will have spikes, seasonalities. And brokers will continue to pitch in ttm results. Buyers will tend to go back to annual rev/ebitda (and not ttm).

Any experience bridging this gap? Sellers get super excited with ttm and buyers keep it low with annual numbers. Not necessary ttm June will be best for valuation as against normal financial period of Jan-Dec.