Stock Market Investors » Glossary of Stock Terms » What is a Price Earnings Ratio?

What is a Price to Earnings Ratio?

When you decide on the investment in a particular stock you should make a careful examination of its indicators. One of them is its price/earnings ratio (P/E). This ratio shows the relationship between the price of the stock and the earnings that the company makes. In order to find the P/E of a company you should divide the current price of the stock by the earnings per share the company has annually.

A high value of a stock's P/E indicates higher expectations of investors regarding the growth of the company. This also means that investors are willing to pay a higher premium for the growth that the company will experience in the future.

To be a successful investor you need two main things - the knowledge and the right trading platform. For a trading platform we can recommend try you Zecco and TradeKing.
Zecco offers free stock trades, no account minimum, real time quotes, trading community, and is also insured and protected against loss by SIPC. Opening a Zecco account to benefit from $0 Stock/ETF trading is a smart idea. Free stock trades allow you to preserve more of your wealth and save money, which you can invest instead of paying brokerage commissions.
TradeKing has been rated #1 Discount Broker by SmartMoney’s (the Wall Street Journal Magazine) annual US broker survey. It was also awarded the highest 4-star ranking in Barron's survey of Best Browser-Based Online Brokers. TradeKing platform features real-time portfolio information, advanced order entry, stock, option and mutual fund screeners, customized charting and alerts, volatility charts, a pricing probability calculator, free research and integrated news, and interactive educational information. Open a TradeKing account here

Article Tools
Rate this article : Low
  • Currently 3/5 Stars
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
High
Bookmark this page :


Related terms: price to earnings ratio, calculating price earnings ratio, price earnings ratios, definition of price earnings ratio, what is price earnings ratio, company earnings, ratio analysis