Yahoo Finance Is AAC Technologies Holdings Inc’s (HKG:2018) High P/E Ratio A Problem For Investors?
This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, we’ll show how AAC Technologies Holdings Inc’s (HKG:2018) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. AAC Technologies Holdings has a price to earnings ratio of 13.44, based on the last twelve months. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 7.4%.
See our latest analysis for AAC Technologies Holdings
How Do I Calculate AAC Technologies Holdings’s Price To Earnings Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share (in the reporting currency) ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for AAC Technologies Holdings:
P/E of 13.44 = CN¥54.75 (Note: this is the share price in the reporting currency, namely, CNY ) ÷ CN¥4.07 (Based on the year to June 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 a good or a bad thing on its own, but a high P/E means that buyers have a higher opinion of the business’s prospects, relative to stocks with a lower P/E.
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. Earnings growth means that in the future the ‘E’ will be higher. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up.
AAC Technologies Holdings’s earnings per share grew by -4.2% in the last twelve months. And it has bolstered its earnings per share by 20% per year over the last five years.
How Does AAC Technologies Holdings’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. As you can see below, AAC Technologies Holdings has a higher P/E than the average company (8.4) in the electronic industry.
That means that the market expects AAC Technologies Holdings will outperform other companies in its industry. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isn’t guaranteed. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares.
Remember: P/E Ratios Don’t Consider The Balance Sheet
Don’t forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth.
Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context.
How Does AAC Technologies Holdings’s Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio?
AAC Technologies Holdings’s net debt is 3.8% of its market cap. It would probably trade on a higher P/E ratio if it had a lot of cash, but I doubt it is having a big impact.
The Verdict On AAC Technologies Holdings’s P/E Ratio
AAC Technologies Holdings trades on a P/E ratio of 13.4, which is above the HK market average of 10.9. With modest debt relative to its size, and modest earnings growth, the market is likely expecting sustained long-term growth, if not a near-term improvement.
Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, ‘In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.’ So this free visual report on analyst forecasts could hold they key to an excellent investment decision.
But note: AAC Technologies Holdings 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.
