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Is It Time To Buy ASTARTA Holding NV. (WSE:AST) Based Off Its PE Ratio?

ASTARTA Holding NV. (WSE:AST) is currently trading at a trailing P/E of 4.9x, which is lower than the industry average of 10.9x. While AST might seem like an attractive stock to buy, 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. Check out our latest analysis for ASTARTA Holding

What you need to know about the P/E ratio

WSE:AST PE PEG Gauge Apr 25th 18
WSE:AST PE PEG Gauge Apr 25th 18

P/E is often used for relative valuation since earnings power is a chief driver of investment value. By comparing a stock’s price per share to its earnings per share, we are able to see how much investors are paying for each dollar of the company’s earnings.

P/E Calculation for AST

Price-Earnings Ratio = Price per share ÷ Earnings per share

AST Price-Earnings Ratio = UAH352.43 ÷ UAH72.059 = 4.9x

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 want to compare the stock’s P/E ratio to the average of companies that have similar characteristics as AST, such as size and country of operation. A quick method of creating a peer group is to use companies in the same industry, which is what I will do. At 4.9x, AST’s P/E is lower than its industry peers (10.9x). This implies that investors are undervaluing each dollar of AST’s earnings. As such, our analysis shows that AST represents an under-priced stock.

A few caveats

While our conclusion might prompt you to buy AST immediately, there are two important assumptions you should be aware of. Firstly, our peer group contains companies that are similar to AST. If this isn’t the case, the difference in P/E could be due to other factors. For example, if you are comparing lower risk firms with AST, then its P/E would naturally be lower than its peers, as investors would value those with lower risk at a higher price. The second assumption that must hold true is that the stocks we are comparing AST to are fairly valued by the market. If this does not hold, there is a possibility that AST’s P/E is lower because our peer group is overvalued by the market.

What this means for you:

Since you may have already conducted your due diligence on AST, 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. Remember that basing your investment decision off one metric alone is certainly not sufficient. There are many things I have not taken into account in this article and the PE ratio is very one-dimensional. If you have not done so already, I highly recommend you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:

  1. Financial Health: Is AST’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here.

  2. Past Track Record: Has AST been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of AST’s historicals for more clarity.

  3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.


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.

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