In This Article:
The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, we'll show how AIXTRON SE's (ETR:AIXA) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. AIXTRON has a P/E ratio of 25.02, based on the last twelve months. That means that at current prices, buyers pay €25.02 for every €1 in trailing yearly profits.
View our latest analysis for AIXTRON
How Do I Calculate A Price To Earnings Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for AIXTRON:
P/E of 25.02 = €10.27 ÷ €0.41 (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)
Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?
A higher P/E ratio means that investors are paying a higher price for each €1 of company earnings. That isn't necessarily good or bad, but a high P/E implies relatively high expectations of what a company can achieve in the future.
How Does AIXTRON's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
We can get an indication of market expectations by looking at the P/E ratio. The image below shows that AIXTRON has a higher P/E than the average (20.9) P/E for companies in the semiconductor industry.
That means that the market expects AIXTRON will outperform other companies in its industry. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares.
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. When earnings grow, the 'E' increases, over time. That means unless the share price increases, the P/E will reduce in a few years. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up.
AIXTRON shrunk earnings per share by 2.8% last year.
Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet
One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth.
Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.
How Does AIXTRON's Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio?
AIXTRON has net cash of €259m. This is fairly high at 23% of its market capitalization. That might mean balance sheet strength is important to the business, but should also help push the P/E a bit higher than it would otherwise be.