Yahoo Finance Do You Know What Party City Holdco Inc.’s (NYSE:PRTY) P/E Ratio Means?
Want to participate in a short research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card!
This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We’ll show how you can use Party City Holdco Inc.’s (NYSE:PRTY) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity. Based on the last twelve months, Party City Holdco’s P/E ratio is 5.02. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 20%.
See our latest analysis for Party City Holdco
How Do I Calculate A Price To Earnings Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for Party City Holdco:
P/E of 5.02 = $10.41 ÷ $2.07 (Based on the year to September 2018.)
Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?
A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to pay a higher price for each $1 the company has earned over the last year. All else being equal, it’s better to pay a low price — but as Warren Buffett said, ‘It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.’
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. When earnings grow, the ‘E’ increases, over time. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings.
Party City Holdco increased earnings per share by a whopping 114% last year. And earnings per share have improved by 51% annually, over the last five years. I’d therefore be a little surprised if its P/E ratio was not relatively high.
How Does Party City Holdco’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. The image below shows that Party City Holdco has a lower P/E than the average (15.9) P/E for companies in the specialty retail industry.
Party City Holdco’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. It is arguably worth checking if insiders are buying shares, because that might imply they believe the stock is undervalued.
Remember: P/E Ratios Don’t Consider The Balance Sheet
Don’t forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. 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.
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.
Party City Holdco’s Balance Sheet
Party City Holdco’s net debt is considerable, at 198% of its market cap. If you want to compare its P/E ratio to other companies, you must keep in mind that these debt levels would usually warrant a relatively low P/E.
The Bottom Line On Party City Holdco’s P/E Ratio
Party City Holdco has a P/E of 5. That’s below the average in the US market, which is 16.8. The company may have significant debt, but EPS growth was good last year. The low P/E ratio suggests current market expectations are muted, implying these levels of growth will not continue.
When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. 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 visualization of the analyst consensus on future earnings could help you make the right decision about whether to buy, sell, or hold.
You might be able to find a better buy than Party City Holdco. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings).
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.
