100% Gainers and Their Estimated P/Es

The average year to date change of stocks in the S&P 500 is 33.27%, even though the index itself is up just 16.54% YTD. The average estimated P/E ratio for next year for stocks that actually have earnings in the index is 19.47. Twenty-six stocks in the S&P 500 are expected to lose money over the next year.

Below we provide a list of S&P 500 stocks that are up more than 100% year to date along with their estimated P/E ratios. As shown, there is a pretty wide variation in valuations of the best performing stocks year to date, with some having low P/Es and some having high or negative P/Es. Micron (MU), Advanced Micro (AMD), Sun Micro (JAVA), Sprint (S), and Office Depot (ODP) are the five stocks up more than 100% in 2009 with negative estimated P/Es. Other strong performing stocks with high valuations include THC, F, SNDK, MOT, and MWV. XL Capital has the lowest P/E estimate of the stocks listed below at 7.40. It is up 370% year to date. Genworth (GNW) is up 325% with a P/E estimate of 11.06, and WDC is up 218% with a P/E estimate of 9.76. Other stocks on the list with a ratio below 20 include FCX, GT, EXPE, WYN, MEE, JWN, GS, CTSH, and LIFE.

Comments

[Zoltan L. K...:]

Apple's future P/E might be much lower due to new accounting rules. In the meantime a non-GAAP multiple could do aswell.

Sep 16 12:57 PM

[Channon:]

P/E?? That's so "yesterday". Our economy is in a new paradigm. This time, it's different...

Sep 16 01:01 PM

[Timeline St...:]

Isn't a P/E from a company having negative earnings, not 'Negative' as you state, but rather incalculable and thus 'N/A'?

Sep 16 01:43 PM

[Mike Trienis:]

Technically, it is possible to have a negative PE ratio as the annual earnings per share can be negative value. It does make some sense to keep the value negative as you could possible extract additional valuation information. For example, a higher negative PE ratio may indicate that a stock is more overvalued than a stock with a lower negative PE ratio.

On Sep 16 01:43 PM Timeline Strategy Consulting wrote:

> Isn't a P/E from a company having negative earnings, not 'Negative'
> as you state, but rather incalculable and thus 'N/A'?

Sep 16 10:55 PM

[ari5000:]

as the stock market is now essentially risk-free thanks to Fed intervention.... this list is surprisingly cheap.

how much would you pay if you knew you could never lose?

Sep 17 09:32 PM

[BeachRider:]

JAVA on this list, too? Although this list is backward-looking, I can't help thinking that people are looking at entries that will continue this performance.

JAVA is being purchased by ORCL, as soon as Belgium clears it. If something happens and ORCL drops the acquisition plan (very low chance), then JAVA will decline in value.

Buy JAVA if you believe that the difference from today's price to the ORCL purchase price will give you enough value for the risk. The minor chance of significant falloff is what is causing the gap today.

I wish ORCL and JAVA well on this venture, but it will be a roller coaster for a little while!

Sep 18 02:10 PM