Should You Be Tempted To Buy Sky Solar Holdings Ltd (SKYS) Because Of Its PE Ratio?
Sky Solar Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:SKYS) trades with a trailing P/E of 7.1x, which is lower than the industry average of 13x. Although some investors may jump to the conclusion that this is a great buying opportunity, understanding the assumptions behind the P/E ratio might change your mind. In this article, I will explain what the P/E ratio is as well as what you should look out for when using it. View our latest analysis for Sky Solar Holdings
What you need to know about the P/E ratio
The P/E ratio is one of many ratios used in 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 dollar of the company’s earnings.
P/E Calculation for SKYS
Price-Earnings Ratio = Price per share ÷ Earnings per share
SKYS Price-Earnings Ratio = $1.48 ÷ $0.207 = 7.1x
The P/E ratio itself doesn’t tell you a lot; however, it becomes very insightful when you compare it with other similar companies. Our goal is to compare the stock’s P/E ratio to the average of companies that have similar attributes to SKYS, such as company lifetime and products sold. A quick method of creating a peer group is to use companies in the same industry, which is what I will do. At 7.1x, SKYS’s P/E is lower than its industry peers (13x). This implies that investors are undervaluing each dollar of SKYS’s earnings. Therefore, according to this analysis, SKYS is an under-priced stock.
Assumptions to watch out for
Before you jump to the conclusion that SKYS is the perfect buying opportunity, it is important to realise that our conclusion rests on two assertions. Firstly, our peer group contains companies that are similar to SKYS. 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 SKYS, 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 SKYS to are fairly valued by the market. If this does not hold true, SKYS’s lower P/E ratio may be because firms in our peer group are overvalued by the market.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? Since you may have already conducted your due diligence on SKYS, the undervaluation of the stock may mean it is a good time to top up on your current holdings. But at the end of the day, keep in mind that relative valuation relies heavily on critical assumptions I’ve outlined above.
Are you a potential investor? If SKYS has been on your watch list for a while, it is best you also consider its intrinsic valuation. Looking at PE on its own will not give you the full picture of the stock as an investment, so I suggest you should also look at other relative valuation metrics like EV/EBITDA or PEG.
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 Sky Solar Holdings 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.
