what is trailing 12 months ttm 
trailing 12 months ttm is a term that describes the past 12 consecutive months of a company s performance data used for reporting financial figures these figures represent a more current picture of a business s financial performance than using its annual filings and reports which at times can contain information that is nearly one year old the 12 months studied do not necessarily coincide with a fiscal year ending period ttm figures are produced for various metrics including earnings eps p e and yield investopedia mira norianunderstanding trailing 12 months ttm analysts and investors use ttm to dissect a wide swath of financial data such as balance sheet figures income statements and cash flows the methodology for calculating ttm data may differ from one financial statement to the next in the equity research space some analysts report earnings quarterly while others do so annually but investors who seek daily information about stock prices and other current data may look to ttms as more relevant measures because they re more current and seasonally adjusted ttm figures can also be used to calculate financial ratios the price earnings ratio is often called the p e ttm and is calculated as the stock s current price divided by a company s trailing 12 month earnings per share eps much of fundamental analysis involves comparing a measurement against a like measurement from a prior term to decipher how much growth was realized for example although the company that reports 1 billion in revenues is undoubtedly impressive this achievement is even more notable if that same company s revenues increased from 500 million to 1 billion within the last 12 months this marked improvement provides a clear snapshot of the company s growth trajectory 