How to Calculate LTM Revenue: A Step-by-Step Method

Last Twelve Months (LTM) revenue measures a company’s sales performance over the most recent 12-month period. This rolling metric provides a more immediate and up-to-date view than traditional annual reports, which can quickly become outdated. LTM revenue is a common metric for timely insights into a company’s operational strength.

Defining LTM Revenue

Last Twelve Months (LTM) revenue represents the total income a company has generated over the most recent 12 consecutive months, irrespective of its fiscal year-end. This metric is also frequently referred to as Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) or rolling-12-months revenue, with both terms being interchangeable in practice. Unlike fixed annual or quarterly reporting periods, LTM revenue provides a continuous, moving window into a company’s sales.

Revenue, in this context, encompasses the total sales of goods or services before any expenses are deducted. It is often referred to as the “top line” of a company’s income statement. Companies may categorize revenue in various ways, such as product sales, service revenue, or net sales. The LTM calculation aggregates these revenue streams over the 12-month period.

Identifying Required Financial Data

To calculate LTM revenue, the first step involves gathering the necessary financial information. For public companies, the primary sources of this data are filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Specifically, annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q contain the required income statements. These documents are publicly available through the SEC’s EDGAR database or on the investor relations sections of company websites.

Within the income statement, locate the line item for “Revenue,” “Sales,” or “Net Sales,” which typically appears at the very top. This figure represents the total money earned from the company’s core operations. For private companies, this information would be found in their internal financial statements. Access to these statements for the relevant periods is important.

Collecting revenue figures for the last twelve months involves combining data from these reports. If four consecutive quarterly reports (10-Qs) are available, simply sum the revenue from each of these four periods. For instance, to calculate LTM revenue ending March 31, 2025, you would add the revenues from the 10-Q for the quarter ending March 31, 2025, plus the 10-Qs for the quarters ending December 31, 2024, September 30, 2024, and June 30, 2024.

Alternatively, a common method involves using the most recent annual report (10-K) and subsequent quarterly reports (10-Qs). This approach is useful when a full year has passed since the last 10-K, and new quarterly data has become available. It requires identifying the revenue from the previous full fiscal year’s 10-K, the year-to-date (YTD) revenue from the most recent 10-Q, and the YTD revenue for the same period in the prior fiscal year.

Executing the Calculation Steps

Once all necessary revenue data has been gathered, LTM revenue can be calculated. The method chosen depends on the available financial statements and the desired ending period.

One straightforward method involves summing the revenue from the four most recent consecutive quarterly income statements. For example, if a company’s fiscal quarters end in March, June, September, and December, and you want to find the LTM revenue ending June 30, 2025, you would add the revenue from Q2 2025 (ending June 30, 2025), Q1 2025 (ending March 31, 2025), Q4 2024 (ending December 31, 2024), and Q3 2024 (ending September 30, 2024). If Q2 2025 revenue was $150 million, Q1 2025 was $120 million, Q4 2024 was $180 million, and Q3 2024 was $140 million, the LTM revenue would be $150M + $120M + $180M + $140M = $590 million.

A second common method is applied when you have a full annual report and one or more subsequent quarterly reports for the current fiscal year. This approach adjusts the prior full year’s revenue by adding the current year’s partial revenue and subtracting the corresponding partial revenue from the prior year. The formula is: LTM Revenue = Current Fiscal Year’s Year-to-Date (YTD) Revenue + Prior Fiscal Year’s Full Revenue – Prior Fiscal Year’s YTD Revenue for the same period as the current YTD.

Consider a company with a December 31 fiscal year-end. Suppose their full fiscal year 2024 revenue was $1,000 million. For the first quarter of 2025 (ending March 31, 2025), their YTD revenue is $200 million. To complete the 12-month period, you need to remove the first quarter of the previous fiscal year (2024) from the full 2024 revenue. If the Q1 2024 revenue was $180 million, the LTM revenue ending March 31, 2025, would be calculated as: $200 million (Q1 2025 YTD) + $1,000 million (FY 2024) – $180 million (Q1 2024 YTD) = $1,020 million.