Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of December 9, 2014

Article Excerpt

When they look for stocks to buy, investors sometimes fall into a habit of focusing on those with a particularly attractive reading on a single investment measure. These readings include a low per-share ratio of price-to-earnings, a low price-to-book-value ratio, or a high dividend yield. This seems like a quick, easy way of spotting an investment bargain. However, most investment measures fall on a spectrum that ranges from suspiciously cheap to extraordinarily expensive. For example, suppose you decide you will only consider buying stocks with a per-share price-to-earnings ratio of 10.0 or less. That way, you hope to get more earnings for each dollar you invest. But the “e” or earnings in the p/e only covers earnings, or an earnings estimate, for a single year. The year your low p/e covers may coincide with a peak in the company’s earnings, for any number of reasons. One key reason is that many disasters-in-waiting go through a low-p/e period prior to their eventual collapse. During…