What is the Price-Earnings Relative?
The price-earnings relative is a comparison of a stock's P/E ratio to the cumulative P/E ratio of a related market index.
How Does the Price-Earnings Relative Work?
The price-earnings relative considers the P/E of a given stock relative to the P/E ratio for a comparable market index, such as the Dow Jones or S&P 500. The formula for price-earnings relative is:
Price-Earnings Relative = Stock P/E ratio / Index P/E ratio
As a method of performance measurement, a price-earnings relative of less than 1.0 indicates that the stock had poorer earnings performance than the overall market, while a value of greater than 1.0 means that the stock performed more strongly than the overall market. A stock that tracked exactly the market's earnings performance would have a price-earnings relative equal to 1.0.
For example, if the P/E ratio for a given stock was 0.85 and the P/E for the S&P 500 was 1.1 for the same period, the price-earnings relative would be 0.85 / 1.1 = 0.77, meaning that it did not perform as well as the overall market.
Why Does the Price-Earnings Relative Matter?
The price earnings relative helps to assess whether or not a stock's performance was adequate given overall market performance.
- Create a retirement savings goal
- Design an investment plan to reach it.
- Get a professional money manager to continually monitor and rebalance your portfolio
Sound complicated? Don't stress. Vanguard's new robo advisor service can help you put all of this (and more!) on autopilot, all for an annual gross advisory fee of just 0.20%.
Click here to learn more about Vanguard's new Digital Advisor service.
