Market Value Ratios: Price-Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio)
Market Value Ratios: Price-Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio)
Market Value Ratios: Price-Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio)
Market Value Ratios relate an observable market value, the stock price, to book values obtained from the firm's financial statements.
where
Market-to-Book Ratio
The Market-to-Book Ratio relates the firm's market value per share to its book value per share. Since a firm's book value reflects historical cost accounting, this ratio indicates management's success in creating value for its stockholders. This ratio is used by "value-based investors" to help to identify undervalued stocks.
where
For example, take a company which paid dividends totaling $1 per share last year and whose shares currently sell for $20. Its dividend yield would be calculated as
follows: The yield for the S&P 500 is reported this way. US newspaper and web listings of common stocks apply a somewhat different calculation: they report the latest quarterly dividend multiplied by 4 divided by the current price. Others try to estimate the next year's dividend and use it to derive a prospective dividend yield. Such a scheme is used for the calculation of the FTSE UK Dividend+ Index[1]. Estimates of future dividend yields are by definition uncertain.
Calculated as: Market Value per Share Earnings per Share (EPS) For example, if a company is currently trading at $43 a share and earnings over the last 12 months were $1.95 per share, the P/E ratio for the stock would be 22.05 ($43/$1.95).EPS is usually from the last four quarters (trailing P/E), but sometimes it can be taken from the estimates of earnings expected in the next four quarters (projected or forward P/E). A third variation uses the sum of the last two actual quarters and the estimates of the next two quarters.Also sometimes known as "price multiple" or "earnings multiple."In general, a high P/E suggests that investors are expecting higher earnings growth in the future compared to companies with a lower P/E. However, the P/E ratio doesn't tell us the whole story by itself. It's usually more useful to compare the P/E ratios of one company to other companies in the same industry, to the market in general or against the company's own historical P/E. It would not be useful for investors using the P/E ratio as a basis for their investment to compare the P/E of a technology company (high P/E) to a utility company (low P/E) as each industry has much different growth prospects. The P/E is sometimes referred to as the "multiple", because it shows how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of earnings. If a company were currently trading at a multiple (P/E) of 20, the interpretation is that an investor is willing to pay $20 for $1 of current earnings.It is important that investors note an important problem that arises with the P/E measure, and to avoid basing a decision on this measure alone. The denominator (earnings) is based on an accounting measure of earnings that is susceptible to forms of manipulation, making the quality of the P/E only as good as the quality of the underlying earnings number. Things to Remember Generally a high P/E ratio means that investors are anticipating higher growth in the future. The average market P/E ratio is 20-25 times earnings. The p/e ratio can use estimated earnings to get the forward looking P/E ratio. Companies that are losing money do not have a P/E ratio