
A “good” P/E ratio isn’t necessarily a high ratio or a low ratio on its own. The market average P/E ratio currently ranges from 20-25, so a higher PE above that could be considered bad, while a lower PE ratio could be considered better. However, the long answer is more nuanced than that.
Full Answer
Is a high P/E ratio always a good thing?
It’s a good idea to take the P/E ratio with a grain of salt. For one thing, a company with a high P/E ratio could have a good reason behind that number. Investors might be willing to pay more because they are particularly bullish about that company’s prospects.
Is it okay to buy a stock with a P/E of 27?
It’s also ok if the stock is like P/E = 27. That’s not much different than P/E = 24– if you think about it. Say that a stock has great metrics all across the board, but the P/E is just barely higher than 25.
What is a good p value to report?
“When reporting p values, report exact p values (e.g., p = .031) to two or three decimal places. However, report p values less than .001 as p < .001. The tradition of reporting p values in the form p < .10, p < .05, p < .01, and so forth, was appropriate in a time when only limited tables of critical values were available.” (p. 114)
What level of statistical significance is a p value of 1?
The level of statistical significance is often expressed as a p -value between 0 and 1. The smaller the p-value, the stronger the evidence that you should reject the null hypothesis. A p -value less than 0.05 (typically ≤ 0.05) is statistically significant.

What is a p-value?
A p-value, or probability value, is a number describing how likely it is that your data would have occurred by random chance (i.e. that the null hy...
Is P value of 0.05 Significant?
A p-value less than 0.05 (typically ≤ 0.05) is statistically significant. It indicates strong evidence against the null hypothesis, as there is les...
Does a p-value tell you whether your alternative hypothesis is true?
No. If the p-value is below your threshold of significance (typically p < 0.05), you can reject the null hypothesis, but this does not mean that th...
Why is a high P/E ratio good?
For one thing, a company with a high P/E ratio could have a good reason behind that number. Investors might be willing to pay more because they are particularly bullish about that company’s prospects. A company with high growth prospects could have a high P/E ratio and still be a good buy.
What does a P/E ratio of 15 mean?
For example, a P/E ratio of 15 means that investors are willing to pay $15 for every dollar of company earnings, for a multiple of 15. A lower P/E ratio means that investors are paying less per dollar of company earnings, and that it will take less time for the company to earn enough to buy back its shares.
What is an alternative hypothesis?
The alternative hypothesis is the one you would believe if the null hypothesis is concluded to be untrue. The alternative hypothesis states that the independent variable did affect the dependent variable, and the results are significant in terms of supporting the theory being investigated (i.e. not due to chance).
What does a p-value of 0.05 mean?
A p -value higher than 0.05 (> 0.05) is not statistically significant and indicates strong evidence for the null hypothesis. This means we retain the null hypothesis and reject the alternative hypothesis.
Why do we use p-values in statistical tests?
When you perform a statistical test a p -value helps you determine the significance of your results in relation to the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis states that there is no relationship between the two variables being studied (one variable does not affect the other). It states the results are due to chance and are not significant in terms ...
Why is the p-value not enough?
Why the p -value is not enough. A lower p -value is sometimes interpreted as meaning there is a stronger relationship between two variables. However, statistical significance means that it is unlikely that the null hypothesis is true (less than 5%).
How do you know if a p-value is statistically significant?
How do you know if a p -value is statistically significant? A p-value, or probability value, is a number describing how likely it is that your data would have occurred by random chance (i.e. that the null hypothesis is true). The level of statistical significance is often expressed as a p -value between 0 and 1.
Is the null hypothesis correct?
FALSE. Rejecting the null hypothesis does not allow you to accept the alternative. "as there is less than a 5% probability the null is correct (and the results are random).". FALSE. The null is almost certainly never correct, and p-values do not give you the probability that the null is correct.
Can you accept a null hypothesis?
You should note that you cannot accept the null hypothesis, we can only reject the null or fail to reject it. A statistically significant result cannot prove that a research hypothesis is correct (as this implies 100% certainty).
Why is intrinsic value less?
Same numbers everywhere else– but the real intrinsic value is less because investors have to take on more risk. Say interest rates increase. Take a business that has much less debt than its competitors. Increasing interest rates likely aren’t hurting their real intrinsic value as much as the rest of the market.
Why do Wall Street investors like good earnings?
Because the main goal of a business is to turn a profit (earnings is just another word for profits), Wall Street likes when a company has good earnings. Investors should also like lots of earnings, and earnings growth.
Can Wall Street overvalue earnings?
The problem is that Wall Street can overvalue earnings to the point where a price of a stock will go so high that future gains would require continued exceptional earnings performance from the company. It’s safe to say that businesses can’t maintain top tiers of performance forever, we haven’t seen one so far.
Can intrinsic value be approximated?
So if we can agree that intrinsic value can’t be specified but instead must be approximated, it only makes sense that the P/E ratio, which is used to assist in determining intrinsic value should also be approximated and not constricted to a specific value or even predefined range.
Do you want to buy a stock because of one ratio?
While there are general rules of thumb, the ratio itself does require some context. You absolutely do NOT want to buy a stock simply because of one ratio. But it is very helpful to understand when you see a good P/E ratio vs. when you don’t. That’s what this blog post will attempt to achieve.
Why can't I interpret a P value?
Incorrect interpretations of P values are very common. The most common mistake is to interpret a P value as the probability of making a mistake by rejecting a true null hypothesis (a Type I error ). There are several reasons why P values can’t be the error rate. First, P values are calculated based on the assumptions that the null is true for ...
Why can't you tell if a P value is true?
Consequently, P values can’t tell you the probability that the null is true or false because it is 100% true from the perspective of the calculations.
What is the lack of a difference between groups called?
This lack of a difference is called the null hypothesis, which is essentially the position a devil’s advocate would take when evaluating the results of an experiment.
How to understand P value?
In order to understand P values, you must first understand the null hypothesis. In every experiment, there is an effect or difference between groups that the researchers are testing. It could be the effectiveness of a new drug, building material, or other intervention that has benefits. Unfortunately for the researchers, ...
Why do we use P values?
The P value is used all over statistics, from t-tests to regression analysis. Everyone knows that you use P values to determine statistical significance in a hypothesis test. In fact, P values often determine what studies get published and what projects get funding. Despite being so important, the P value is a slippery concept ...
Do sample groups ever equal null hypothesis value?
In fact, it is extremely unlikely that the sample groups will ever exactly equal the null hypothesis value. Consequently, the devil’s advocate position is that the observed difference in the sample does not reflect a true difference between populations.
Is the null hypothesis true?
The null hypothesis is true: there is no difference between the experimental groups at the population level. Despite the null being true, it’s entirely possible that there will be an effect in the sample data due to random sampling error.
Why is a high P/E ratio good?
Another reason: a company with a high ratio could have high growth prospects. Its ratio is high because it just spent a lot of money to grow its business. So it could still be a good buy. In other words, you shouldn’t just zero in on the P/E ratio when you’re deciding whether to buy shares.
How to use P/E ratio?
You generally use the P/E ratio by comparing it to other P/E ratios of companies in the same industry or to past P/E ratios of the same company. If you are comparing same-sector companies, the one with the lower P/E may be undervalued. Or if you’re looking at past data for one company, a higher number could mean it’s no longer a bargain.
What is the P/E ratio?
The P/E ratio, or price-to-earnings ratio, is a quick way to see if a stock is undervalued or overvalued — and generally speaking, the lower the P/E ratio is, the better it is for the business and for potential investors. The metric is the stock price of a company divided by its earnings per share.
Can you compare P/E ratios?
You shouldn’t compare P/E ratios of different kinds of companies, like a tech company and a consumer staple company. In other words, the metric is only useful when comparing apples to apples. If you want help with using P/E ratios to invest your money, consider working with a financial advisor.
Why is the P/E ratio skewy?
This can skew the P/E ratio. Finally, the downside to the P/E is that just because the P/E ratio suggests a stock is “cheap” doesn ’t mean the investor should buy it.
What is a negative P/E ratio?
Firstly, companies that make no earnings have a “0” or “N/A” P/E ratio. If earnings are negative, the P/E ratio can be calculated, but a negative P/E ratio is generally not useful for comparison purposes. The P/E also can’t be used to compare companies of different industries.
What is the P/E ratio?
Another way of thinking about the P/E ratio is the earnings yield. The earnings yield is inverse of the P/E ratio—which is calculated as earnings per share divided by price per share.
Why do earnings rise?
Earnings can rise or fall for a variety of reasons, maybe the company is facing increased competition or maybe a new technology is making its products obsolete. Earnings are how a company is doing. The P/E ratio is how the company is expected to do.
What does a high P/E mean?
The P/E is meant to be a quick way to assess a company based on its earnings. A high P/E ratio relative to its peers, or historically, means investors are expecting higher future earnings growth, and thus are willing to pay more right now . A lower P/E suggests investors believe earnings growth may slow going forward.
What is the P/E of Amazon?
The P/E ratio, in simplistic terms, is how much one dollar of profits cost to invest in the company.
Is a high PE ratio bad for investors?
The higher the P/E ratio, the more you are paying for each dollar of earnings. This makes a high PE ratio bad for investors, strictly from a price to earnings perspective. A higher P/E ratio means you are paying more to purchase a share of the company’s earnings .

What Is A Null Hypothesis?
- All statistical tests have a null hypothesis. For most tests, the null hypothesis is that there is no relationship between your variables of interest or that there is no difference among groups. For example, in a two-tailed t-test, the null hypothesis is that the difference between two groups is z…
How Do You Calculate The P-Value?
- P-values are usually automatically calculated by your statistical program (R, SPSS, etc.). You can also find tables for estimating the p-value of your test statistic online. These tables show, based on the test statistic and degrees of freedom (number of observations minus number of independent variables) of your test, how frequently you would expect to see that test statistic un…
P-Values and Statistical Significance
- P-values are most often used by researchers to say whether a certain pattern they have measured is statistically significant. Statistical significance is another way of saying that the p-value of a statistical test is small enough to reject the null hypothesis of the test. How small is small enough? The most common threshold is p <0.05; that is, when you would expect to find a test st…
Reporting P-Values
- P-values of statistical tests are usually reported in theresults section of a research paper, along with the key information needed for readers to put the p-values in context – for example, correlation coefficient in a linear regression, or the average difference between treatment groups in a t-test.
Caution When Using P-Values
- P-values are often interpreted as your risk of rejecting the null hypothesis of your test when the null hypothesis is actually true. In reality, the risk of rejecting the null hypothesis is often higher than the p-value, especially when looking at a single study or when using small sample sizes. This is because the smaller your frame of reference, the greater the chance that you stumble across …