Here’s What EDAG Engineering Group AG’s (FRA:ED4) P/E Is Telling Us

The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We’ll show how you can use EDAG Engineering Group AG’s (FRA:ED4) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity. EDAG Engineering Group has a price to earnings ratio of 17.16, based on the last twelve months. In other words, at today’s prices, investors are paying €17.16 for every €1 in prior year profit.

See our latest analysis for EDAG Engineering Group

How Do I Calculate A Price To Earnings Ratio?

The formula for price to earnings is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for EDAG Engineering Group:

P/E of 17.16 = €15.46 ÷ €0.90 (Based on the year to September 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 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

If earnings fall then in the future the ‘E’ will be lower. That means unless the share price falls, the P/E will increase in a few years. A higher P/E should indicate the stock is expensive relative to others — and that may encourage shareholders to sell.

Notably, EDAG Engineering Group grew EPS by a whopping 34% in the last year. But earnings per share are down 152% per year over the last five years.

How Does EDAG Engineering Group’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. You can see in the image below that the average P/E (10.6) for companies in the auto components industry is lower than EDAG Engineering Group’s P/E.

More

Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that EDAG Engineering Group shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So further research is always essential. I often monitor director buying and selling.

Remember: P/E Ratios Don’t Consider The Balance Sheet

The ‘Price’ in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. That means it doesn’t take debt or cash into account. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth.

Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof).

Is Debt Impacting EDAG Engineering Group’s P/E?

Net debt totals 32% of EDAG Engineering Group’s 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 EDAG Engineering Group’s P/E Ratio

EDAG Engineering Group has a P/E of 17.2. That’s around the same as the average in the DE market, which is 17.2. When you consider the impressive EPS growth last year (along with some debt), it seems the market has questions about whether rapid EPS growth will be sustained. Since analysts are predicting growth will continue, one might expect to see a higher P/E so it may be worth looking closer.

Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. 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.