Trailing P/E Ratio

How to Calculate Trailing P/E Ratio ?

The trailing price-to-earnings ratio is based on a company’s historical earnings per share (EPS) as reported in the latest period and is the most common variation of the P/E ratio.

If equity analysts are discussing the price-to-earnings ratio, it would be reasonable to assume that they are referring to the trailing price-to-earnings ratio.

The trailing P/E metric compares a company’s price as of the latest closing date to its most recently reported earnings per share (EPS).

The question answered by the trailing price-to-earnings is:

• “How much is the market willing to pay today for a dollar of a company’s current earnings?”

In general, the historical valuation ratios tend to be most practical for mature companies exhibiting low-single-digit growth.

Trailing P/E Ratio Formula

Calculating the trailing P/E ratio involves dividing a company’s current share price by its historical earnings per share (EPS).

Where:

• Current Share Price: The current share price is the closing share price as of the latest trading date.
• Historical EPS: The historical EPS is the EPS value as announced in the latest fiscal year (10-K) or the latest LTM period based on the company's most recent quarterly report (10-Q).

Trailing P/E Ratio vs. Forward P/E Ratio: What is the Difference?

The main benefit of using a trailing P/E ratio is that unlike the forward P/E ratio – which relies on forward-looking earnings estimates – the trailing variation is based on historical reported data from the company.

While there can be adjustments made that can cause the trailing P/E to differ between different equity analysts, the variance is much less than that of the forward-looking earnings estimates across different equity analysts.

Trailing P/E ratios are based on the reported financial statements of a company (“backward-looking”), not the subjective opinions of the market, which is prone to bias (“forward-looking”).

But sometimes, a forward P/E ratio can be more practical if a company’s future earnings reflect its true financial performance more accurately. For instance, a high-growth company’s profitability could change significantly in the upcoming periods, despite perhaps showing low-profit margins in current periods.

Unprofitable companies are unable to use the trailing P/E ratio because a negative ratio causes it to be meaningless. In such cases, the only option would be to use a forward multiple.

One drawback to trailing P/E ratios is that the financials of a company can be skewed by non-recurring items. In contrast, a forward P/E ratio would be adjusted to portray the normalized operating performance of the company.

Trailing P/E Ratio Calculator – Excel Template

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Trailing PE Ratio Calculation Example

Suppose a company’s latest closing share price was $50.00.

The most recent earnings report for the company was for its fiscal year 2021 performance, in which it announced earnings per share (EPS) of $3.25.

• Current Share Price = $50.00
• Earnings Per Share (EPS) = $3.25

Using those two assumptions, the trailing P/E ratio can be calculated by dividing the current share price by the historical EPS.

• Trailing P/E = $50.00 / $3.25 = 15.4x

The company’s P/E on a trailing basis is 15.4x, so investors are willing to pay $15.40 for a dollar of the company's current earnings.

The 15.4x multiple would need to be compared against the company's industry peers to determine if it is undervalued, fairly valued, or overvalued.