What Does American National Bankshares Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMNB) P/E Ratio Tell You?
This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We’ll show how you can use American National Bankshares Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMNB) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity. American National Bankshares has a P/E ratio of 15.88, based on the last twelve months. In other words, at today’s prices, investors are paying $15.88 for every $1 in prior year profit.
View our latest analysis for American National Bankshares
How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for American National Bankshares:
P/E of 15.88 = $36.03 ÷ $2.27 (Based on the year to September 2018.)
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. All else being equal, it’s better to pay a low price — but as Warren Buffett said, ‘It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.’
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. When earnings grow, the ‘E’ increases, over time. That means unless the share price increases, the P/E will reduce in a few years. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings.
It’s great to see that American National Bankshares grew EPS by 14% in the last year. And it has bolstered its earnings per share by 2.9% per year over the last five years. So one might expect an above average P/E ratio.
How Does American National Bankshares’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. As you can see below American National Bankshares has a P/E ratio that is fairly close for the average for the banks industry, which is 15.8.
That indicates that the market expects American National Bankshares will perform roughly in line with other companies in its industry. If the company has better than average prospects, then the market might be underestimating it. Further research into factors such asmanagement tenure, could help you form your own view on whether that is likely.
Remember: P/E Ratios Don’t Consider The Balance Sheet
Don’t forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. That means it doesn’t take debt or cash into account. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings.
Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof).
American National Bankshares’s Balance Sheet
Since American National Bankshares holds net cash of US$13m, it can spend on growth, justifying a higher P/E ratio than otherwise.
The Bottom Line On American National Bankshares’s P/E Ratio
American National Bankshares trades on a P/E ratio of 15.9, which is below the US market average of 18. The net cash position gives plenty of options to the business, and the recent improvement in EPS is good to see. One might conclude that the market is a bit pessimistic, given the low P/E ratio. Because analysts are predicting more growth in the future, one might have expected to see a higher P/E ratio. You can taker closer look at the fundamentals, here.
Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20.
To help readers see past 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. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
