AIM:CRND PE PEG Gauge Oct 1st 17
A common ratio used for relative valuation is the P/E ratio. 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 pound of the company’s earnings.
P/E Calculation for CRND
Price-Earnings Ratio = Price per share ÷ Earnings per share
CRND Price-Earnings Ratio = 0 ÷ 0.003 = 2.2x
The P/E ratio itself doesn’t tell you a lot; however, it becomes very insightful when you compare it with other similar companies. Our goal is to compare the stock’s P/E ratio to the average of companies that have similar attributes to CRND, such as company lifetime and products sold. A common peer group is companies that exist in the same industry, which is what I use. At 2.2x, CRND’s P/E is lower than its industry peers (10.9x). This implies that investors are undervaluing each dollar of CRND’s earnings. Therefore, according to this analysis, CRND is an under-priced stock.
A few caveats
Before you jump to the conclusion that CRND is the perfect buying opportunity, it is important to realise that our conclusion rests on two assertions. Firstly, our peer group contains companies that are similar to CRND. If this isn’t the case, the difference in P/E could be due to other factors. For example, if you compared lower risk firms with CRND, 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 CRND to are fairly valued by the market. If this is violated, CRND's P/E may be lower than its peers as they are actually overvalued by investors.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? You may have already conducted fundamental analysis on the stock as a shareholder, so its current undervaluation could signal a good buying opportunity to increase your exposure to CRND. Now that you understand the ins and outs of the PE metric, you should know to bear in mind its limitations before you make an investment decision.
Are you a potential investor? If CRND has been on your watch list for a while, it is best you also consider its intrinsic valuation. Looking at PE on its own will not give you the full picture of the stock as an investment, so I suggest you should also look at other relative valuation metrics like EV/EBITDA or PEG.
PE is one aspect of your portfolio construction to consider when holding or entering into a stock. But it is certainly not the only factor. Take a look at our most recent infographic report on Central Rand Gold for a more in-depth analysis of the stock to help you make a well-informed investment decision. Since we know a limitation of PE is it doesn't properly account for growth, you can use our free platform to see my list of stocks with a high growth potential and see if their PE is still reasonable.
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.