Should You Be Tempted To Sell Brady Corporation (NYSE:BRC) Because Of Its P/E Ratio?
The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We’ll look at Brady Corporation’s (NYSE:BRC) P/E ratio and reflect on what it tells us about the company’s share price. Based on the last twelve months, Brady’s P/E ratio is 24.72. In other words, at today’s prices, investors are paying $24.72 for every $1 in prior year profit.
Check out our latest analysis for Brady
How Do I Calculate A Price To Earnings Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for Brady:
P/E of 24.72 = $45.29 ÷ $1.83 (Based on the year to October 2018.)
Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?
A higher P/E ratio implies that investors pay a higher price for the earning power of the business. That isn’t necessarily good or bad, but a high P/E implies relatively high expectations of what a company can achieve in the future.
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. 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.
Brady shrunk earnings per share by 4.3% last year. But over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have increased by 68%.
How Does Brady’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. The image below shows that Brady has a higher P/E than the average (18.5) P/E for companies in the commercial services industry.
That means that the market expects Brady will outperform other companies in its industry. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares.
A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank
The ‘Price’ in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings.
Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.
Is Debt Impacting Brady’s P/E?
Since Brady holds net cash of US$138m, it can spend on growth, justifying a higher P/E ratio than otherwise.
The Verdict On Brady’s P/E Ratio
Brady’s P/E is 24.7 which is above average (16.8) in the US market. The recent drop in earnings per share might keep value investors away, but the net cash position means the company has time to improve: and the high P/E suggests the market thinks it will.
Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. People often underestimate remarkable growth — so investors can make money when fast growth is not fully appreciated. So this free visualization of the analyst consensus on future earnings could help you make the right decision about whether to buy, sell, or hold.
But note: Brady may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio 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.
