Ins and outs : Keep p/e ratios in perspective

Article Excerpt

There’s no doubt that price-to-earnings ratios (or p/e’s) are a popular and widely followed measure for investors. The p/e is the ratio of a stock’s market price per share to its per-share earnings. The general rule is that the lower the p/e, the better, and a p/e of less than, say 10, represents excellent value. However, by themselves, p/e’s can steer you wrong on individual stocks, and on the market in general. In particular, it pays to be wary of stocks that trade at suspiciously low p/e’s. Low p/e’s may come about because well-informed investors are selling the stock and pushing the price down, regardless of earnings. In other words, unusually low p/e’s can be a sign of danger rather than a clue to a bargain. Successful investors treat p/e’s as one of many tools for conducting stock research, not a deciding factor. We follow that approach when we examine a stock’s performance for Dividend Advisor. It’s also why we look beyond p/e’s to…