Monday, January 02, 2006 11:36:00 PM
Understanding the P/E ratio:
Regarding the equation above - for example: If company ABC is currently trading at $6.11 a share and earnings over the last 12 months were $0.20 per share, the P/E ratio for the stock would be 30.55
($6.11/$0.20).
Theoretically, a stock's P/E tells us how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of earnings. For this reason it's also called the "multiple" of a stock. In other words, a P/E ratio of 20 suggests that investors in the stock are willing to pay $20 for every $1 of earnings that the company generates. However, this is a far too simplistic way of viewing the P/E because it fails to take into account the company's growth prospects.
The P/E ratio is a much better indicator of the value of a stock than the market price alone. For example, all things being equal, a $10 stock with a P/E of 75 is much more "expensive" than a $100 stock with a P/E of 20. That being said, there are limits to this form of analysis -- you can't just compare the P/Es of two different companies to determine which is a better value.
If a company has a P/E higher than the market or industry average, this means the market is expecting big things over the next few months or years. A company with a high P/E ratio will eventually have to live up to the high rating by substantially increasing its earnings, or the stock price will need to drop.
It can be challenging to determine whether a particular P/E is high or low without taking into account two main factors:
Company growth rates - How fast has the company been growing in the past, and are these rates expected to increase or at least continue into the future? Something isn't right if a company has only grown at 5% in the past and still has a stratospheric P/E. If projected growth rates don't justify the P/E, then a stock might be overpriced. In this situation, all you have to do is calculate the P/E using projected EPS (which will be included in our toolbox).
Industry - It is only useful to compare companies if they are in the same industry. For example, utilities typically have low multiples because they are low growth, stable industries. In contrast, the technology industry is characterized by phenomenal growth rates and constant change. Comparing a tech to a utility is useless. You should only compare high growth companies to others in the same industry, or to the industry average. You can find P/E ratios by industry on....
Yahoo Finance...http://biz.yahoo.com/p/industries.html
Regarding the equation above - for example: If company ABC is currently trading at $6.11 a share and earnings over the last 12 months were $0.20 per share, the P/E ratio for the stock would be 30.55
($6.11/$0.20).
Theoretically, a stock's P/E tells us how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of earnings. For this reason it's also called the "multiple" of a stock. In other words, a P/E ratio of 20 suggests that investors in the stock are willing to pay $20 for every $1 of earnings that the company generates. However, this is a far too simplistic way of viewing the P/E because it fails to take into account the company's growth prospects.
The P/E ratio is a much better indicator of the value of a stock than the market price alone. For example, all things being equal, a $10 stock with a P/E of 75 is much more "expensive" than a $100 stock with a P/E of 20. That being said, there are limits to this form of analysis -- you can't just compare the P/Es of two different companies to determine which is a better value.
If a company has a P/E higher than the market or industry average, this means the market is expecting big things over the next few months or years. A company with a high P/E ratio will eventually have to live up to the high rating by substantially increasing its earnings, or the stock price will need to drop.
It can be challenging to determine whether a particular P/E is high or low without taking into account two main factors:
Company growth rates - How fast has the company been growing in the past, and are these rates expected to increase or at least continue into the future? Something isn't right if a company has only grown at 5% in the past and still has a stratospheric P/E. If projected growth rates don't justify the P/E, then a stock might be overpriced. In this situation, all you have to do is calculate the P/E using projected EPS (which will be included in our toolbox).
Industry - It is only useful to compare companies if they are in the same industry. For example, utilities typically have low multiples because they are low growth, stable industries. In contrast, the technology industry is characterized by phenomenal growth rates and constant change. Comparing a tech to a utility is useless. You should only compare high growth companies to others in the same industry, or to the industry average. You can find P/E ratios by industry on....
Yahoo Finance...http://biz.yahoo.com/p/industries.html
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