in the project business, I would look to understand the labor portion of the cost and if there is upside through resourcing, and risk of disruption from offshore suppliers. LTAs on both inputs and outputs play a major role in valuation.

Lots of great input here. I’d add that context is important. A TTM will give you only performance relative to the business itself, but if the industry and economy were both on an uptick, the business may just have benefitted from those trends. The look back should extend as far back as you can go and ideally include varying business cycles. Lastly, give project revenue a healthy haircut if you don’t see reoccurring customers in the top 10 account listing — you’ll be hustling to “figure it out” as soon as it’s yours.