P/E Ratio and Growth Rate
The growth stocks generally command a higher P/E ratio because their future earnings are expected to be greater. In Stocks for the Long Run, Jeremy Siegel examines the P/E ratios of growth and technology stocks. He examined Nifty Fifty stocks for the duration December 1972 to Nov 2001. He found that
| Portfolio | Annualized Returns | 1972 P/E | Warranted P/E | EPS Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nifty Fifty average | 11.62% | 41.9 | 38.7 | 10.14% |
| S&P 500 | 12.14% | 18.9 | 18.9 | 6.98% |
This suggests that the significantly P/E ratio for the Nifty Fifty as a group in 1972 was actually justified by the returns during the next three decades. However, he found that some individual stocks within the Nifty Fifty were overvalued while others were undervalued.
Read more about this topic: Earnings Growth
Famous quotes containing the words ratio, growth and/or rate:
“People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“The reality is that zero defects in products plus zero pollution plus zero risk on the job is equivalent to maximum growth of government plus zero economic growth plus runaway inflation.”
—Dixie Lee Ray (b. 1924)
“If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they’re killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We’d not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism.”
—Spike Lee (b. 1956)