To the annoyance of some shareholders, Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) shares are down a considerable 31% in the last month. The stock has been solid, longer term, gaining 12% in the last year.
Assuming nothing else has changed, a lower share price makes a stock more attractive to potential buyers. While the market sentiment towards a stock is very changeable, in the long run, the share price will tend to move in the same direction as earnings per share. The implication here is that long term investors have an opportunity when expectations of a company are too low. One way to gauge market expectations of a stock is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). Investors have optimistic expectations of companies with higher P/E ratios, compared to companies with lower P/E ratios.
View our latest analysis for Applied Materials
How Does Applied Materials’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
Applied Materials’s P/E of 14.81 indicates relatively low sentiment towards the stock. The image below shows that Applied Materials has a lower P/E than the average (25.2) P/E for companies in the semiconductor industry.
Its relatively low P/E ratio indicates that Applied Materials shareholders think it will struggle to do as well as other companies in its industry classification. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. If you consider the stock interesting, further research is recommended. For example, I often monitor director buying and selling.
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. Earnings growth means that in the future the ‘E’ will be higher. That means unless the share price increases, the P/E will reduce in a few years. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up.
Applied Materials shrunk earnings per share by 17% over the last year. But over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have increased by 26%.
A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank
It’s important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. So it won’t reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth.
While growth expenditure doesn’t always pay off, the point is that it is a good option to have; but one that the P/E ratio ignores.
How Does Applied Materials’s Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio?
Net debt totals just 3.3% of Applied Materials’s market cap. So it doesn’t have as many options as it would with net cash, but its debt would not have much of an impact on its P/E ratio.
The Verdict On Applied Materials’s P/E Ratio
Applied Materials has a P/E of 14.8. That’s higher than the average in its market, which is 13.3. With modest debt but no EPS growth in the last year, it’s fair to say the P/E implies some optimism about future earnings, from the market. What can be absolutely certain is that the market has become significantly less optimistic about Applied Materials over the last month, with the P/E ratio falling from 21.4 back then to 14.8 today. For those who don’t like to trade against momentum, that could be a warning sign, but a contrarian investor might want to take a closer look.
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 visual report on analyst forecasts could hold the key to an excellent investment decision.
But note: Applied Materials 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).
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
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