Should You Be Tempted To Buy JBM Auto Limited (NSE:JBMA) Because Of Its PE Ratio?

The content of this article will benefit those of you who are starting to educate yourself about investing in the stock market and want to learn about the link between company’s fundamentals and stock market performance.

JBM Auto Limited (NSE:JBMA) is currently trading at a trailing P/E of 14.8, which is lower than the industry average of 18.3. Although some investors might think this is a real positive, that might change once you understand the assumptions behind the P/E. In this article, I will deconstruct the P/E ratio and highlight what you need to be careful of when using the P/E ratio.

View our latest analysis for JBM Auto

Demystifying the P/E ratio

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 dollar of the company’s earnings.

The P/E ratio itself doesn’t tell you a lot; however, it becomes very insightful when you compare it with other similar companies. Ultimately, our goal is to compare the stock’s P/E ratio to the average of companies that have similar attributes to JBMA, such as company lifetime and products sold. A quick method of creating a peer group is to use companies in the same industry, which is what I will do. Since it is expected that similar companies have similar P/E ratios, we can come to some conclusions about the stock if the ratios are different.

JBMA’s P/E of 14.8 is lower than its industry peers (18.3), which implies that each dollar of JBMA’s earnings is being undervalued by investors. This multiple is a median of profitable companies of 25 Auto Components companies in IN including Ucal Fuel Systems, IST and Enterprises. One could put it like this: the market is pricing JBMA as if it is a weaker company than the average company in its industry.

Assumptions to be aware of

Before you jump to conclusions it is important to realise that our assumptions rests on two important assertions. The first is that our “similar companies” are actually similar to JBMA. If the companies aren’t similar, the difference in P/E might be a result of other factors. For example, if you accidentally compared higher growth firms with JBMA, then JBMA’s P/E would naturally be lower since investors would reward its peers’ higher growth with a higher price. Alternatively, if you inadvertently compared less risky firms with JBMA, JBMA’s P/E would again be lower since investors would reward its peers’ lower risk with a higher price as well. The second assumption that must hold true is that the stocks we are comparing JBMA to are fairly valued by the market. If this does not hold, there is a possibility that JBMA’s P/E is lower because firms in our peer group are being overvalued by the market.

What this means for you:

Since you may have already conducted your due diligence on JBMA, the undervaluation of the stock may mean it is a good time to top up on your current holdings. But at the end of the day, keep in mind that relative valuation relies heavily on critical assumptions I’ve outlined above. 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:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for JBMA’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for JBMA’s outlook.
2. Past Track Record: Has JBMA 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 JBMA’s historicals for more clarity.
3. 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.