TDS (Telephone and Data Systems) EBITDA per Share: $9.76 (TTM As of Mar. 2026)

Telephone and Data Systems  (NYSE:TDS) EBITDA per Share Explanation

EBITDA is a cash flow measure that ignores changes in working capital. EBITDA minus Depreciation, and Amortization (DA) equals EBIT. EBIT is profit before interest and taxes. Of course, Interest and taxes need to be paid.

While depreciation and amortization expenses do not need to be paid in cash, assets - especially tangible assets - do need to be replaced over time. EBITDA is not a measure of profit in any sense. EBITDA is a measure of cash generation by a business where the uses of that cash may be more or less discretionary depending on the nature of the business.

The EBITDA of a TV station is largely discretionary. Owners may use much of the EBITDA generated by a TV station as they see fit. The EBITDA of a railroad is largely non-discretionary. Owners must use much of the EBITDA generated by a railroad to replace the physical assets of the railroad or the business will literally fall apart over time.

EBITDA can be thought of as the cash a business generates that is available to:

EBITDA is widely used in financial analysis because Depreciation and Amortization are not present day cash expenses. Depreciation and amortization are the spreading out of the costs of assets over the time in which those assets provide benefits. Today's depreciation and amortization expenses relate to assets bought in the past. The assets being expensed may or may not need to be replaced in the future. And the cost to replace the assets may be more or less than it was in the past. For this reason, the depreciation and amortization expenses a company records in the present year may have no relationship to the actual cash costs needed to maintain its assets in future years.

A company's depreciation expense depends on both its expectations about the assets it owns and its choice of accounting methods. Two companies owning identical assets may have different depreciation expenses because they have different expectations about the useful lives of those assets and because they make different accounting choices.

Analysts use EBITDA to remove this element of personal choice from a company's accounting statements. The use of EBITDA is an attempt to make the results of different companies more comparable and uniform.

Be Aware

Although depreciation is not a cash cost, it is a real business cost because the company has to pay for the fixed assets when they purchase them. Both Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger hate the idea of EBITDA because in this calculation, depreciation is not counted as an expense.

EBITDA over Revenue is a good metric for comparing the operating efficiencies between companies because EBITDA is less vulnerable to companies' accounting choices. For this reason, EBITDA is used in ranking the Predictability of Companies.

Telephone and Data Systems EBITDA per Share Related Terms

The historical data trend for Telephone and Data Systems's EBITDA per Share can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

Telephone and Data Systems EBITDA per Share Chart

Telephone and Data Systems Annual Data
	Trend	Dec16	Dec17	Dec18	Dec19	Dec20	Dec21	Dec22	Dec23	Dec24	Dec25
EBITDA per Share		Get a 7-Day Free Trial					11.62	10.77	-1.70	2.91	4.67

Telephone and Data Systems Quarterly Data
	Jun21	Sep21	Dec21	Mar22	Jun22	Sep22	Dec22	Mar23	Jun23	Sep23	Dec23	Mar24	Jun24	Sep24	Dec24	Mar25	Jun25	Sep25	Dec25	Mar26
EBITDA per Share	Get a 7-Day Free Trial															0.84	4.16	1.22	1.59	2.79

Telephone and Data Systems EBITDA per Share Calculation

EBITDA per Share is the amount of Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) per outstanding share of the company's stock.

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) is what the company earns before it expenses interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Telephone and Data Systems's EBITDA per Share for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2025 is calculated as

Telephone and Data Systems's EBITDA per Share for the quarter that ended in Mar. 2026 is calculated as

EBITDA per Share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2026 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was $9.76

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

Telephone and Data Systems Business Description