Is It Time To Buy Ocean Bio-Chem Inc (NASDAQ:OBCI) Based Off Its PE Ratio?
Ocean Bio-Chem Inc (NASDAQ:OBCI) is currently trading at a trailing P/E of 13.3x, which is lower than the industry average of 19.5x. While OBCI 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 Ocean Bio-Chem
Demystifying the P/E ratio
The P/E ratio is a popular ratio used in relative valuation since earnings power is a key driver of investment value. 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 OBCI
Price-Earnings Ratio = Price per share ÷ Earnings per share
OBCI Price-Earnings Ratio = $4 ÷ $0.301 = 13.3x
On its own, the P/E ratio doesn’t tell you much; however, it becomes extremely useful 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 OBCI, 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 13.3x, OBCI’s P/E is lower than its industry peers (19.5x). This implies that investors are undervaluing each dollar of OBCI’s earnings. Therefore, according to this analysis, OBCI is an under-priced stock.
Assumptions to be aware of
Before you jump to the conclusion that OBCI is the perfect buying opportunity, it is important to realise that our conclusion rests on two assertions. The first is that our “similar companies” are actually similar to OBCI, or else the difference in P/E might be a result of other factors. For example, if you compared lower risk firms with OBCI, then investors would naturally value it at a lower price since it is a riskier investment. The second assumption that must hold true is that the stocks we are comparing OBCI to are fairly valued by the market. If this is violated, OBCI’s P/E may be lower than its peers as they are actually overvalued by investors.
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.
