Urban Outfitters: P/E Ratio Insights

 

Right now, Urban Outfitters Inc. URBN share price is at $16.99, after a 5.24% drop. Over the past month, the stock went up by 6.72%, but over the past year, it actually fell by 28.73%. With questionable short-term performance like this, and great long-term performance, long-term shareholders might want to start looking into the company's price-to-earnings ratio.

The stock is currently higher from its 52 week low by 38.36%. Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for investors trying to diversify their portfolio with apparel retail stocks, and capitalize on the lower share price observed over the year.

The P/E ratio measures the current share price to the company's earnings per share. It is used by long-term investors to analyze the company’s current performance against its past earnings, historical data and aggregate market data for the industry or the indices, such as S&P 500. A higher P/E indicates that investors expect the company to perform better in the future, and the stock is probably overvalued, but not necessarily. It also shows that investors are willing to pay a higher share price currently, because they expect the company to perform better in the upcoming quarters. This leads investors to also remain optimistic about rising dividends in the future.

Depending on the particular phase of a business cycle, some industries will perform better than others.

Compared to the aggregate P/E ratio of 10.65 in the apparel retail industry, Urban Outfitters has a higher P/E ratio of 10.74. Shareholders might be inclined to think that Urban Outfitters Inc. might perform better than its industry group. It’s also possible that the stock is overvalued.

There are many limitations to P/E ratio. It is sometimes difficult to determine the nature of the earnings makeup of a company. Shareholders might not get what they're looking for, from trailing earnings.

Posted In: Intraday UpdateMarketsp/e ratio
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!

Loading...