Yahoo Finance Read This Before You Buy JBM Auto Limited (NSE:JBMA) Because Of Its P/E Ratio
This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, we’ll show how JBM Auto Limited’s (NSE:JBMA) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. JBM Auto has a price to earnings ratio of 15.5, based on the last twelve months. That corresponds to an earnings yield of approximately 6.5%.
See our latest analysis for JBM Auto
How Do You Calculate JBM Auto’s P/E Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for JBM Auto:
P/E of 15.5 = ₹291.45 ÷ ₹18.8 (Based on the year to September 2018.)
Is A High P/E 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
P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. When earnings grow, the ‘E’ increases, over time. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others — and that may attract buyers.
It’s great to see that JBM Auto grew EPS by 21% in the last year. And its annual EPS growth rate over 5 years is 5.7%. So one might expect an above average P/E ratio.
How Does JBM Auto’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. If you look at the image below, you can see JBM Auto has a lower P/E than the average (17.7) in the auto components industry classification.
JBM Auto’s P/E tells us that market participants think it will not fare as well as its peers in the same industry. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. You should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling.
Don’t Forget: The P/E Does Not Account For Debt or Bank Deposits
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.
Is Debt Impacting JBM Auto’s P/E?
JBM Auto’s net debt is 45% of its market cap. This is enough debt that you’d have to make some adjustments before using the P/E ratio to compare it to a company with net cash.
The Bottom Line On JBM Auto’s P/E Ratio
JBM Auto has a P/E of 15.5. That’s below the average in the IN market, which is 17.1. The company hasn’t stretched its balance sheet, and earnings growth was good last year. If it continues to grow, then the current low P/E may prove to be unjustified. Given analysts are expecting further growth, one might have expected a higher P/E ratio. That may be worth further research.
Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. If the reality for a company is not as bad as the P/E ratio indicates, then the share price should increase as the market realizes this. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock.
But note: JBM Auto 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.
