When do you use a single company's raw beta vs. an industry / peer-group beta?

Two choices for beta.

Raw beta of the company: target publicly traded with 5+ years of trading history and a stable business model.

Industry beta for:

• Private targets (no market observation).
• Pre-IPO valuations.
• Thinly traded or recently listed stocks (<2 years of data).
• Raw beta implausibly low (<0.5) or high (>2.0) — often data artifacts.

Pick 8–12 comps, unlever each beta, take the median or mean, relever to the target capital structure. For middle-market PE targets, this is almost always the way.