At £0.415, Is It Time To Sell General Industries plc (LSE:AQSG)?
General Industries plc (LSE:AQSG) trades with a trailing P/E of 33.5x, which is higher than the industry average of 16.4x. While AQSG might seem like a stock to avoid or sell if you own it, it is important to understand the assumptions behind the P/E ratio before you make any investment decisions. Today, I will break down what the P/E ratio is, how to interpret it and what to watch out for. See our latest analysis for AQSG
Demystifying the P/E ratio
P/E is a popular ratio used for relative valuation. It compares a stock’s price per share to the stock’s earnings per share. A more intuitive way of understanding the P/E ratio is to think of it as how much investors are paying for each pound of the company’s earnings.
P/E Calculation for AQSG
Price-Earnings Ratio = Price per share ÷ Earnings per share
AQSG Price-Earnings Ratio = 0.42 ÷ 0.012 = 33.5x
The P/E ratio itself doesn’t tell you a lot; however, it becomes very insightful when you compare it with other similar companies. We preferably want to compare the stock’s P/E ratio to the average of companies that have similar features to AQSG, such as capital structure and profitability. A quick method of creating a peer group is to use companies in the same industry, which is what I will do. At 33.5x, AQSG’s P/E is higher than its industry peers (16.4x). This implies that investors are overvaluing each dollar of AQSG’s earnings. Therefore, according to this analysis, AQSG is an over-priced stock.
A few caveats
Before you jump to the conclusion that AQSG should be banished from your portfolio, it is important to realise that our conclusion rests on two assertions. Firstly, our peer group contains companies that are similar to AQSG. If this isn’t the case, the difference in P/E could be due to other factors. For example, if you compared higher growth firms with AQSG, then its P/E would naturally be lower since investors would reward its peers’ higher growth with a higher price. The second assumption that must hold true is that the stocks we are comparing AQSG to are fairly valued by the market. If this does not hold, there is a possibility that AQSG’s P/E is lower because our peer group is overvalued by the market.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? You may have already conducted fundamental analysis on the stock as a shareholder, so its current overvaluation could signal a potential selling opportunity to reduce your exposure to AQSG. Now that you understand the ins and outs of the PE metric, you should know to bear in mind its limitations before you make an investment decision.
Are you a potential investor? If you are considering investing in AQSG, basing your decision on the PE metric at one point in time is certainly not sufficient. I recommend you do additional analysis by looking at its intrinsic valuation and using other relative valuation ratios like PEG or EV/EBITDA.
PE is one aspect of your portfolio construction to consider when holding or entering into a stock. But it is certainly not the only factor. Take a look at our most recent infographic report on General Industries for a more in-depth analysis of the stock to help you make a well-informed investment decision. Since we know a limitation of PE is it doesn’t properly account for growth, you can use our free platform to see my list of stocks with a high growth potential and see if their PE is still reasonable.
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.
