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It's really great to see that even after a strong run, Magadanenergo (MCX:MAGE) shares have been powering on, with a gain of 32% in the last thirty days. Zooming out, the annual gain of 121% knocks our socks off.
Assuming no other changes, a sharply higher share price makes a stock less attractive to potential buyers. While the market sentiment towards a stock is very changeable, in the long run, the share price will tend to move in the same direction as earnings per share. So some would prefer to hold off buying when there is a lot of optimism towards a stock. One way to gauge market expectations of a stock is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). A high P/E implies that investors have high expectations of what a company can achieve compared to a company with a low P/E ratio.
Check out our latest analysis for Magadanenergo
Does Magadanenergo Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry?
Magadanenergo's P/E of 1.24 indicates relatively low sentiment towards the stock. The image below shows that Magadanenergo has a lower P/E than the average (5.1) P/E for companies in the electric utilities industry.
Its relatively low P/E ratio indicates that Magadanenergo shareholders think it will struggle to do as well as other companies in its industry classification. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. You should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling.
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. If earnings are growing quickly, then the 'E' in the equation will increase faster than it would otherwise. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings.
Magadanenergo's earnings made like a rocket, taking off 195% last year. The sweetener is that the annual five year growth rate of 30% is also impressive. With that kind of growth rate we would generally expect a high P/E ratio.
Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet
Don't forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth.
Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context.