Yahoo Finance Does Weis Markets Inc’s (NYSE:WMK) PE Ratio Warrant A Buy?
This article is intended for those of you who are at the beginning of your investing journey and want to begin learning about how to value company based on its current earnings and what are the drawbacks of this method.
Weis Markets Inc (NYSE:WMK) is trading with a trailing P/E of 12.1x, which is lower than the industry average of 17.5x. While this makes WMK appear like a great stock to buy, you might change your mind after I explain the assumptions behind the P/E ratio. Today, I will explain what the P/E ratio is as well as what you should look out for when using it.
Check out our latest analysis for Weis Markets
Breaking down the P/E ratio
P/E is a popular ratio used for relative valuation. By comparing a stock’s price per share to its earnings per share, we are able to see how much investors are paying for each dollar of the company’s earnings.
P/E Calculation for WMK
Price-Earnings Ratio = Price per share ÷ Earnings per share
WMK Price-Earnings Ratio = $46.59 ÷ $3.844 = 12.1x
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 WMK, such as company lifetime and products sold. One way of gathering a peer group is to use firms in the same industry, which is what I’ll do. Since WMK’s P/E of 12.1 is lower than its industry peers (17.5), it means that investors are paying less for each dollar of WMK’s earnings. This multiple is a median of profitable companies of 24 Consumer Retailing companies in US including HF Foods Group, Innovative Food Holdings and Ingles Markets. One could put it like this: the market is pricing WMK as if it is a weaker company than the average company in its industry.
Assumptions to watch out for
However, there are two important assumptions you should be aware of. Firstly, our peer group contains companies that are similar to WMK. If this isn’t the case, the difference in P/E could be due to other factors. For example, if you compared higher growth firms with WMK, then its P/E would naturally be lower since investors would reward its peers’ higher growth with a higher price. The second assumption that must hold true is that the stocks we are comparing WMK to are fairly valued by the market. If this does not hold, there is a possibility that WMK’s P/E is lower because our peer group is overvalued by the market.
What this means for you:
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 WMK. 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. Remember that basing your investment decision off one metric alone is certainly not sufficient. There are many things I have not taken into account in this article and the PE ratio is very one-dimensional. If you have not done so already, I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for WMK’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for WMK’s outlook.
Past Track Record: Has WMK been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of WMK’s historicals for more clarity.
Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
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.
