“
The stock is selling at a p/e of 30, while the most optimistic projections of earnings growth are 15–20 percent for the next two years.
”
”
Peter Lynch (One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In)
“
A stock selling at $100 per share with earnings of $10 per share would have the same P/E multiple (10) as a stock selling at $40 with earnings of $4 per share. It is the P/E multiple, not the price, that really tells you how a stock is valued in the market.
”
”
Burton G. Malkiel (A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing)
“
Everyone would wear the same clothes every day and they would be made from soft grey fabric that felt good against the skin, not itchy, scratchy or harsh. At school, you could choose what to do. If you didn’t like art or PE, you could read instead. Every day the library was stocked with new books. No one shouted or raised their voices. If you ever broke a rule a proper grown-up explained why it was a rule and why it mattered and then you were simply told – kindly – not to do it again.
”
”
Laura James (Odd Girl Out: An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World)
“
With all of the data and analytical tools at our disposal, you would not expect this, but a substantial proportion of business and investment decisions are still based on the average. I see investors and analysts contending that a stock is cheap because it trades at a PE that is lower than the sector average or that a company has too much debt because its debt ratio is higher than the average for the market. The average is not only a poor central measure on which to focus in distributions that are not symmetric, but it strikes me as a waste to not use the rest of the data.
”
”
Aswath Damodaran (Narrative and Numbers: The Value of Stories in Business (Columbia Business School Publishing))
“
Lynch calculated each potential stock’s P/E-to-growth ratio (or PEG ratio) and would buy for his portfolio only those stocks with high growth relative to their P/Es. This was not simply a low P/E strategy, because a stock with a 50 percent growth rate and a P/E of 25 (PEG ratio of ½) was deemed far better than a stock with 20 percent growth and a P/E of 20 (PEG ratio of
”
”
Burton G. Malkiel (A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing)
“
Near the end of a momentum stock’s long uptrend, it will frequently be trading at a truly irrational P/E multiple. No amount of business success or growth will ever be able to justify such a multiple.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (The Little Black Book of Stock Market Secrets)
“
Until you become an advanced investor, don't ever buy a stock with a P/E of 10 or less.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market)
“
Buffett’s thesis on Cleveland Worsted Mills was straightforward. The stock sold for below its net current asset value and at a bargain P/E multiple. The worsted manufacturer was consistently profitable and paid a fat dividend. By 1952, having graduated from Columbia and now an employee at Buffett-Falk, Buffett liked the stock enough to write a brief report on it, stating, “The $8 dividend provides a well-protected 7% yield on the current price of approximately $115.”86 The stock had been cheap for some time. Buffett, in fact, had held the stock in 1951, selling at a slight loss as he invested his capital in companies like GEICO and Timely Clothes. Ben Graham also liked the stock, having made the Cleveland firm a 1.5% position in the Graham-Newman fund and including the company in the 1951 edition of Security Analysis in a table titled “Six Common Stocks Undervalued in 1949,” along with Marshall-Wells.87
”
”
Brett Gardner (Buffett's Early Investments: A new investigation into the decades when Warren Buffett earned his best returns)
“
When the legendary Steve Schwarzman's firm went public in 2007, I was convinced that this was merely an opportunity to take advantage of a huge spike in the stock market for the partners in Blackstone to cash out and ultimately call it a day. I saw the public offering then as an unworthy investment, which could only serve to fill the partners' pockets while they proceeded to 'mail it in' for their new shareholders. But I have been proven completely wrong. Blackstone's history since its public offering is a continued history of success stories, and I believe the current energy restructuring opportunity will be no different. Elsewhere in this book, I talk a bit about the deal it made with Linn Energy, with very advantageous terms for Blackstone. As a long-term hold, I can find no better (public) PE firm to invest in.
”
”
Dan Dicker (Shale Boom, Shale Bust: The Myth of Saudi America)
“
Multiple Companion variable Mismatch indicator for undervalued company PE ratio Expected growth Low PE ratio with high expected growth rate in earnings per share P/BV ratio ROE Low P/BV ratio with high ROE P/S ratio Net margin Low P/S ratio with high net profit margin EV/EBITDA Reinvestment rate Low EV/EBITDA ratio with low reinvestment needs EV/Capital Return on capital Low EV/Capital ratio with high return on capital EV/Sales After-tax operating margin Low EV/Sales ratio with high after-tax operating margin
”
”
Aswath Damodaran (The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock, and Profit (Little Books. Big Profits))
“
Market value of equity: The price per share or market capitalization. Market value of firm: The sum of the market values of both debt and equity. Market value of operating assets or enterprise value: The sums of the market values of debt and equity but with cash netted out of the value. When measuring earnings and book value, you can again measure them from the perspective only of equity investors or of both debt and equity (firm). Thus, earnings per share and net income are earnings to equity, whereas operating income measures earnings to the firm. The shareholders' equity on a balance sheet is book value of equity; the book value of the entire business includes debt; and the book value of invested capital is that book value, net of cash. To provide a few illustrations: you can divide the market value of equity by the net income in order to estimate the PE ratio (measuring how much equity investors are paying per dollar of earnings) or divide enterprise value by EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) to get a sense of the market value of operating assets relative to operating cash flow. The central reason for standardizing, though, does not change. We want to compare these numbers across companies.
”
”
Aswath Damodaran (The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock, and Profit (Little Books. Big Profits))
“
Even the simplest multiples are defined and computed differently by different analysts. A PE ratio for a company can be computed using earnings from the last fiscal year (current PE), the last four quarters (trailing PE), or the next four quarters (forward), yielding very different estimates. It can also vary depending on whether you use diluted or primary earnings. The first test to run on a multiple is to examine whether the numerator and denominator are defined consistently. If the numerator is an equity value, then the denominator should be an equity value as well. If the numerator is a firm value, then the denominator should be a firm value as well. To illustrate, the PE ratio is a consistently defined multiple since the numerator is the price per share (which is an equity value) and the denominator is earnings per share (which is also an equity value). So is the enterprise value to EBITDA multiple since the numerator and denominator are both measures of operating assets; the enterprise value measures the market value of the operating assets of a company, and the EBITDA is the cash flow generated by the operating assets. In contrast, the price-to-sales ratio and price to EBITDA are not consistently defined since they divide the market value of equity by an operating measure. Using these multiples will lead you to finding any firm with a significant debt burden to be cheap.
”
”
Aswath Damodaran (The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock, and Profit (Little Books. Big Profits))
“
In the previous four quarters, Yahoo! had racked up $433 million in revenues and $34.9 million in net income. So Yahoo!’s stock was now priced at 263 times revenues and 3,264 times earnings. (Remember that a P/E ratio much above 25 made Graham grimace!)5
”
”
Benjamin Graham (The Intelligent Investor)
“
What we want is a company that increases profits (and hopefully dividends) each year and where the rating (PE ratio) that the stock market/investors place on the company's shares increases significantly. This is the 'double whammy' any investor should be seeking.
”
”
John Lee (How to Make a Million – Slowly: Guiding Principles from a Lifetime of Investing (Financial Times Series))
“
Since I entered the business world, conglomerates have enjoyed several periods of extreme popularity, the silliest of which occurred in the late 1960s. The drill for conglomerate CEOs then was simple: By personality, promotion or dubious accounting — and often by all three — these managers drove a fledgling conglomerate’s stock to, say, 20 times earnings and then issued shares as fast as possible to acquire another business selling at ten-or-so times earnings. They immediately applied “pooling” accounting to the acquisition, which — with not a dime’s worth of change in the underlying businesses — automatically increased per-share earnings, and used the rise as proof of managerial genius. They next explained to investors that this sort of talent justified the maintenance, or even the enhancement, of the acquirer’s p/e multiple. And, finally, they promised to endlessly repeat this procedure and thereby create ever-increasing per-share earnings.
”
”
Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, 2023)
“
Nothing wrong with buying high PE stocks; however, expected business growth must justify the high price.
”
”
Naved Abdali
“
Moderate P/E ratio. Graham recommends limiting yourself to stocks whose current price is no more than 15 times average earnings over the past three years. Incredibly, the prevailing practice on Wall Street today is to value stocks by dividing their current price by something called “next year’s earnings.” That gives what is sometimes called “the forward P/E ratio.” But it’s nonsensical to derive a price/earnings ratio by dividing the known current price by unknown future earnings. Over the long run, money manager David Dreman has shown, 59% of Wall Street’s “consensus” earnings forecasts miss the mark by a mortifyingly wide margin—either underestimating or overestimating the actual reported earnings by at least 15%.2 Investing your money on the basis of what these myopic soothsayers predict for the coming year is as risky as volunteering to hold up the bulls-eye at an archery tournament for the legally blind. Instead, calculate a stock’s price/earnings ratio yourself, using Graham’s formula of current price divided by average earnings over the past three years.3 As of early 2003, how many stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index were valued at no more than 15 times their average earnings of 2000 through 2002? According to Morgan Stanley, a generous total of 185 companies passed Graham’s test.
”
”
Benjamin Graham (The Intelligent Investor)
“
Simply estimate where earnings per share (EPS) will be in 5 years from now. Slap a 15 multiple (P/E) on that number and you have a reasonable price target for the stock. Warren Buffett uses a similar trick all the time.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (The Little Black Book of Stock Market Secrets)
“
When the P/E of a company hits a 5-year low, many analysts will recommend the stock as a "cheap stock.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market)
“
Don't ever expect to find good stocks in the bargain bin— unless perhaps you are at the end of a multi-year bear market. Even then, you are often better off buying a higher-quality company that has a higher P/E.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market)
“
Ignore the high P/E.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market)
“
Party time Part 1
After school, we go to Maddie’s. When we were little, like freshman year and even some of the sophomore year, we would sometimes stay in her room and put on x-out and pluck out eyebrows into that fine little line, and color our hair with highlights, and order pizza, cramming down as much as we could eat.
Those days are going, we can’t get fat. Now Jenny hardly eats anything, and if she does, she can hardly keep it down. I think maybe that’s what I get so lightheaded, I only eat like once a day now. Jenny back then had a little extra around the middle, and now you can see her ribs, she even has that two-defined line on her tummy that goes into her underwear.
I remember sneaking around late at night in her hose stealing a cookie from the jar on the top shelf in the old wood cabinet, that is also where her mom would hide her cigarettes that Jenny loved also, and the condoms were in a trinity box on top of the fridge, I sorry but I find that hilarious.
At that time, we would stretch out on one of her, old enormous worn-out couches and watch, TV or movies until we fell asleep in our nightshirts’-the TV in Maddie’s living room is like 80 inches it’s like being in a movie theater our legs tangled together under an enormous fleece blanket. Maddie and liv are always entangled more passionately than Jenny and me on the loveseat! Maddie has an ancient TV in her room from the 1990s. It sucks and is small, it’s one of those with the big back on it, and the color is green, like looking into a fish tank. It’s funny her mom and dad don’t have money blinds on the windows, yet they have a big ass TV. You can sometimes see the people in the next condo overlooking us like we can see them get busy in their room! Yet nothing beats the hot guy taking a leak in room 302, he looks to be in his late twenties.
He takes the boxes off at 10 pm and we get a free show. He knows we can see him because he makes it look inflexible and you are no more personable. Jenny and we girls love to press upon the glass, and just have fun and be a little crazy, like lifting our nighties and flashing the goods. Facebook stocking gets boring quickly anymore, so some nights the webcam comes out too. After her mom and dad are asleep… I like it’s more fun to be bad! Like we all have profiles and fake names because none of us are eighteen yet. Any- how’s mine is ‘Angel Pink Wings 01’
Maddie goes by: ‘Mad kitty 69’ Jenny goes by:
‘Ms. Little Lover 14’ Liv goes by: ‘Olivia O 123’ Yet everyone knows her by Liv so that name is okay- I guess. We make good money-
‘Double Clicking the Mouse.’
You would not believe all the pervs on this cam the site, just wanting to see us doing it. Like old guys like our PE teacher! Man- that I didn’t even think about how to turn on a computer. Just like him, I guess they need too to see more of us close up. We have our checks mailed to Jenny's college boyfriend’s PO Box. Me this is what I do and yes- I come for you all, I just put in fake blue hair dye in, and have fake long lashes, and put in my blue contacts, and you don’t even know me. And then pen in more eyebrows. Fake, fake, fake, fake FAKE! Boys don’t like it when you fake it or do, they look at me, that's why I am Bi.
”
”
Marcel Ray Duriez (Young Taboo (Nevaeh))
“
Party time Part 1
After school, we go to Maddie’s. When we were little, like freshman year and even some of the sophomore year, we would sometimes stay in her room and put on x-out and pluck out eyebrows into that fine little line, and color our hair with highlights, and order pizza, cramming down as much as we could eat.
Those days are going, we can’t get fat. Now Jenny hardly eats anything, and if she does, she can hardly keep it down. I think maybe that’s what I get so lightheaded, I only eat like once a day now. Jenny back then had a little extra around the middle, and now you can see her ribs, she even has that two-defined line on her tummy that goes into her underwear.
I remember sneaking around late at night in her hose stealing a cookie from the jar on the top shelf in the old wood cabinet, that is also where her mom would hide her cigarettes that Jenny loved also, and the condoms were in a trinity box on top of the fridge, I sorry but I find that hilarious.
At that time, we would stretch out on one of her, old enormous worn-out couches and watch, TV or movies until we fell asleep in our nightshirts’-the TV in Maddie’s living room is like 80 inches it’s like being in a movie theater our legs tangled together under an enormous fleece blanket. Maddie and liv are always entangled more passionately than Jenny and me on the loveseat! Maddie has an ancient TV in her room from the 1990s. It sucks and is small, it’s one of those with the big back on it, and the color is green, like looking into a fish tank. It’s funny her mom and dad don’t have money blinds on the windows, yet they have a big ass TV. You can sometimes see the people in the next condo overlooking us like we can see them get busy in their room! Yet nothing beats the hot guy taking a leak in room 302, he looks to be in his late twenties.
He takes the boxes off at 10 pm and we get a free show. He knows we can see him because he makes it look inflexible and you are no more personable. Jenny and we girls love to press upon the glass, and just have fun and be a little crazy, like lifting our nighties and flashing the goods. Facebook stocking gets boring quickly anymore, so some nights the webcam comes out too. After her mom and dad are asleep… I like it’s more fun to be bad! Like we all have profiles and fake names because none of us are eighteen yet. Any- how’s mine is ‘Angel Pink Wings 01’
Maddie goes by: ‘Mad kitty 69’ Jenny goes by:
‘Ms. Little Lover 14’ Liv goes by: ‘Olivia O 123’ Yet everyone knows her by Liv so that name is okay- I guess. We make good money-
‘Double Clicking the Mouse.’
You would not believe all the pervs on this cam. the site, just wanting to see us doing it. Like old guys like our PE teacher! Man- that I didn’t even think about how to turn on a computer. Just like him, I guess they need too to see more of us close up. We have our checks mailed to Jenny's college boyfriend’s PO Box. Me this is what I do and yes- I come for you all, I just put in fake blue hair dye in, and have fake long lashes, and put in my blue contacts, and you don’t even know me. And then pen in more eyebrows. Fake, fake, fake, fake FAKE! Boys don’t like it when you fake it or do, they look at me, that's why I am Bi.
”
”
Marcel Ray Duriez (Young Taboo (Nevaeh))
“
You can see how the stock price has performed over a variety of periods, the company’s earnings per share (EPS), how earnings compare to the stock price (the P/E, or price-to-earnings ratio), historical dividend payments, and much more.
”
”
Michele Cagan (Real Estate Investing 101: From Finding Properties and Securing Mortgage Terms to REITs and Flipping Houses, an Essential Primer on How to Make Money with Real Estate (Adams 101 Series))
“
one approach is to screen for companies that have lower P/E, P/B, and FCF yields than the overall stock market, an ROE that is consistently above 15%, and a performance over the past year that is at or above the level of the overall market.
”
”
Ex (Simple Stock Trading Formulas: How to Make Money Trading Stocks)
“
Questions to ask when analyzing a business Business - How does the company make money? - Does it seem like it should be a good business? Is it competitive? Do suppliers have too much power? Do customers value the product? Are there substitutes? - Without looking at financials, how does the company seem like it has done against competitors in its industry in terms of executing on its vision? - What reputation does the management team have? Do they seem honest? Straightforward? Valuation - What is the company's P/E multiple? Is it high or low for its industry? For the overall market right now? Why might the stock be trading at this valuation? - What is the company's free-cash flow yield? Is this a relevant metric given the stage the company is in? How does it compare to similar companies? - Is the company growing faster or more slowly than other companies with similar multiples? - Based on the number alone, does the company seem to have a rich valuation or a cheap valuation? Why might this be the case? Financials - What has been the trajectory of revenue growth over the past ten years? Why? What is it expected to do in the future? - How has the company's industry been growing? Is the company gaining or losing share in its industry? - What is the company’s level of profit margins? How does it compare to other companies in its industry? - How have margins varied over the past ten years? Why? - What percentage of the company's costs are fixed costs versus variable costs? - What is the company's historical return on capital? Why is it high/low? What does this say about the quality of the business? - What is the trend in returns on capital? Why? What does this say about the returns the company will have to make on its future investments? - What is the company's dividend policy? Why? If they are paying no dividend or a small dividend, is there a danger that the company's management will waste shareholder's money? Technical - How have the company's shares performed against the overall market and its industry over the past twelve months? - What seems to be driving this under/over performance? - What key news events are likely to impact the stock in the future? - Do mutual funds and other large institutional investors seem to be buying or selling the shares? Sentiment and Expectations - What are the consensus earnings estimates for the next quarter and year? Do they seem aggressive or conservative? - Does consensus opinion seem overly bullish or bearish about the company's future prospects? - What insight do you have that the market might be missing that will cause the shares to appreciate?
”
”
Ex (Simple Stock Trading Formulas: How to Make Money Trading Stocks)
“
In sum, investors trying to decide what P/E to pay for a stock, or at what P/E to sell the stock, can look at: (1) the company’s historical P/Es, (2) comparable companies’ P/Es and (3) relative P/Es, as a guide. They should also look at broad market trends to see if P/Es in general are rising or falling. By comparing past conditions with current conditions, investors will often have a good basis for determining an appropriate price/earnings ratio today. The next three sections will look at the three types of P/E analyses listed
”
”
William H. Pike (Why Stocks Go Up and Down)
“
In light of this analysis, it is evident that the would-be investor misinterpreted the answer. What the magnate meant was this: It is best to buy a stock only if it is selling at the lower end of its P/E range relative to your best estimate of earnings. Then the probability of price appreciation as the future unfolds is greater than
”
”
William H. Pike (Why Stocks Go Up and Down)
“
Many years ago, the famous investors Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett made a lot of money using a very simple version of this strategy. They would look for a company that had net cash of $20.00 per share, and then try to buy shares of its stock for 15. In other words, they were trying to buy a dollar for 75 cents, or even less. Or they would just buy stock in a company that had a P/E of just 5 or 6.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market)
“
P/E is a company’s “price to earnings ratio.” Let's say that a company's stock trades for $100 and that the company has earnings per share (EPS) of $6.50 over the last 12 months. We can calculate a trailing ("last 12 months") P/E ratio for that stock by simply dividing the stock price ("P") by the EPS ("E"), so 100/6.50 equals about 15. We can say that this stock has a TTM P/E (trailing 12 months price to earnings ratio) of 15. Historically that is a pretty good average P/E for a stock or for the stock market as a whole.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market)
“
Companies that are growing their revenues or earnings quickly ("growth stocks") tend to have P/E's above 25. So, for example, today Microsoft has a P/E of 27.70 and Amazon has a P/E of 79. Companies that are in trouble often have P/E's below 10. So for example, today Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) has a P/E of 7.
”
”
Matthew R. Kratter (A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market)
“
If a company has not been able to grow its dividend fast enough, you should either sell it or collect the dividend you receive and purchase other companies with it. Whenever I am not buying companies at a P/E of 15 or less, I just sit back and collect dividends. Being patient and waiting for the right opportunities to buy is a skill in itself.
”
”
Giovanni Rigters (Smart Investors Keep It Simple: Investing in dividend stocks for passive income)
“
As a general rule, the P/E should be 10 to 20 for large cap or income stocks. For growth stocks, a P/E no greater than 30 to 40 is preferable.
”
”
Paul Mladjenovic (Stock Investing for Dummies)
“
You can identify value stocks by their relatively low price ratios (which include the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E ratio), price-to-sales ratio, and price-to-book value ratio), lower-than-average growth rates, and PEG (price-to-earnings growth) less than 1, which means that the company’s growth potential isn’t yet reflected in its price. Examples of value stocks (at the time of this writing) include American Express (AXP), AT&T (T), and Tyson Foods (TSN). Keep in mind that once these stocks catch fire they may lose their value status as demand drives prices up.
”
”
Michele Cagan (Stock Market 101: From Bull and Bear Markets to Dividends, Shares, and Margins—Your Essential Guide to the Stock Market (Adams 101 Series))
“
The most common of these is the price to earnings ratio, or PE (commonly said "P" to "E," "PE Multiple," or just "Multiple"). To calculate this important ratio, simply find the price per share of a stock and divide it by its earnings per share (which you can find from the bottom line of the income statement or from just about any financial website). This ratio is of limited use on its own, but it can be very useful when compared to: 1. The average multiple the company has traded at in its past 2. The average multiple for stocks in the overall market 3. The average multiple for companies in its industry.
”
”
Ex (Simple Stock Trading Formulas: How to Make Money Trading Stocks)
“
Our measure of the P/E ratio at the close of 2016 is based on the year-end price of 2247 for the S&P 500 relative to reported earnings for 2016 of $95 per share—a P/E of 23.7. Wall Street analysts tend to rely on operating earnings (before write-offs and other negatives) that are forecast for the coming year ($118 per share). Resulting P/E: 17.4 times.
”
”
John C. Bogle (The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits))
“
A return to sanity. In April 1999, the P/E ratio had risen to an unprecedented level of 34 times, setting the stage for the return to sanity in valuations that soon followed. The tumble in stock market prices gave us our comeuppance. With earnings continuing to rise, the P/E currently stands at 23.7 times, compared with the 15 times level that prevailed at the start of the twentieth century. As a result, speculative return has added just 0.5 percentage points to the annual investment return earned by our businesses over the long term.
”
”
John C. Bogle (The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits))