Yahoo Finance Should You Be Tempted To Sell Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) Because Of Its P/E Ratio?
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 written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Kansas City Southern's (NYSE:KSU), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research. Based on the last twelve months, Kansas City Southern's P/E ratio is 21.41. In other words, at today's prices, investors are paying $21.41 for every $1 in prior year profit.
View our latest analysis for Kansas City Southern
How Do You Calculate Kansas City Southern's P/E Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for Kansas City Southern:
P/E of 21.41 = $123.71 ÷ $5.78 (Based on the year to March 2019.)
Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?
The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. 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
Generally speaking the rate of earnings growth has a profound impact on a company's P/E multiple. 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. And as that P/E ratio drops, the company will look cheap, unless its share price increases.
Kansas City Southern shrunk earnings per share by 37% over the last year. But over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have increased by 13%.
Does Kansas City Southern Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry?
The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. As you can see below, Kansas City Southern has a higher P/E than the average company (16.8) in the transportation industry.
Kansas City Southern's P/E tells us that market participants think the company will perform better than its industry peers, going forward. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares.
Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet
One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth.
Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.
Is Debt Impacting Kansas City Southern's P/E?
Kansas City Southern's net debt is 21% of its market cap. This could bring some additional risk, and reduce the number of investment options for management; worth remembering if you compare its P/E to businesses without debt.
The Bottom Line On Kansas City Southern's P/E Ratio
Kansas City Southern has a P/E of 21.4. That's higher than the average in the US market, which is 18.2. With some debt but no EPS growth last year, the market has high expectations of future profits.
When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. 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.
But note: Kansas City Southern 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).
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
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. Thank you for reading.
