PE Ratio market price

gazsux

Hey,

This might not be the correct section for this type of question, but I figured those interested in investments might know the answer.

I am calculating the PE Ratio for a company for the years 2003-2005. In the calcuation it requires the 'market price' of the share.

PE ratio = market price per share / earnings per share

Is the 'market price per share' the current market price, ie. when calculating the figure for 2003 i still use today's share price, or is it the share price at year end, ie. when calculating the figure for 2003 i use the figure for the last day of the fiscal year 2003.

Or something different entirely?

I know you can find PE figures online without doing the calculation but i'm just trying to understand how it works.

Thanks!

Chrismaths

The figures quoted on websites use today's price as the 'P', and historic earnings as the 'E'. Therefore they are completely useless. If you want to compare the P/E today to the P/E historically, you'll have to get the historic prices, from sites such as yahoo finance.

gazsux

ahh ok, cheers for that