Price to Average Earnings

The Cyclically Adjusted Price to Earnings Ratio, or CAPE Ratio, is a common long run valuation ratio used by equity investors. It is the price per share divided by earnings per share. This is an average of the past 10 years’ earnings data and earnings are diluted and normalised.

Stockopedia explains CAPE

The Graham Dodds Price to Earnings Ratio/strong, commonly known as CAPE or Shiller P/E, is a valuation measure usually applied to stocks or equity markets.

It is defined as price divided by the average of ten years of earnings.

Value investors Benjamin Graham and David Dodd argued for smoothing a firm's earnings over the past five to ten years in their classic text Security Analysis.

Graham and Dodd noted one-year earnings were too volatile to offer a good idea of a firm's true earning power.

Decades later, Yale economist Robert Shiller popularised the 10-year version of Graham and Dodd's P/E as a way to value the stock market.

Robert Shiller maintains a time-series of US CAPE.

A high PE ratio means that investors are paying more for each unit of Earnings, so the stock is more expensive compared to one with a lower ratio.

Investors have a tendency to overreact becoming enamoured with glamour stocks (pushing their PE too high) while becoming disenchanted with value stocks (pushing their PE too low).

Research has shown that low PE ratio stocks tend to outperform high PE stocks in the long run.

Unlike the EV/EBITDA multiple which is capital structure-neutral, the price-to-earnings ratio reflects the capital structure of the company in question. The reciprocal of the PE ratio is known as the Earnings Yield.

Earnings are measured on a normalised and diluted basis.

Ranks: Low to HighAvailable in screenerAvailable as Table Column

The 5 highest CAPE Stocks in the Market

TickerNameCAPEStockRank™
LON:FTFForesight Enterprise VCT575.0047
LON:VLEVolvere408.3389
LON:IPOIP235.5046
LON:ACRLAccrol group193.0070
LON:FLTRFlutter Entertainment143.0339