PEG Payback Period

Categories: Credit, Metrics

When you make an investment, you want to feel like you know what you’re getting into. At least a little bit, right? For instance, how long would it take to double your money from a stock? If the answer is “a looooonngggg time” compared to similar options, it might be not worth the risk.

How long it takes for an investor to double their money invested in a stock is the PEG payback period. What’s a PEG, you ask? Stands for price-n-earnings-to-growth ratio. Which makes sense...the price paid by the investor, and the earnings accumulated based off of company growth. All of the necessary ingredients to double your money...maybe.

Investors compare PEG payback periods across stocks to measure the relative risk associated with each. The faster an investment earns gains, the more liquid it is. And we all know liquid investments (think: money markets, cash, deposits) are the safest. Yet that also makes them usually low-interest, so...tradeoffs. Typical.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is Price-to-earnings-to-gr...4 Views

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Finance Allah shmoop what is priced toe earnings to growth

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or a peg ratio You know what the P E

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ratio is right And if you don't I'll check out

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our fine opus on said Subject Here it's him up

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So price here's build a bore Stock trading at forty

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bucks a share It had net income or earnings last

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year of two bucks a share in trades at yes

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twenty times earnings So that's a P and in hee

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price and in earnings there it trades at twenty times

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earnings Um yeah So what does that mean Well if

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it held the earnings flat and basically all of its

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earnings was cash earnings Not like some fancy accounting trick

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Well if earnings were flat for twenty years well the

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company would have made back all of its valuation in

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cash profits and everyone would yawn right Twenty years at

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two bucks a year twenty times two is forty right

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Well that company would have paid up five percent cash

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return yield Right Two bucks in earnings over forty bucks

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a share to over forty in California and in Texas

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is five percent So is that a good return about

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return Was there a lot of risk in that number

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Growth shrinkage Wealth in a peg ratio Earnings growth is

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taken into consideration when evaluating the ratios of a stock

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So twenty times earnings is kind of a ho hum

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multiple But this company has no growth so that twenty

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times is probably a pretty high multiple as a multiple

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You know all things considered like twenty years a long

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time to get all your money back What if earnings

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were doubling each year for the next five years Like

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earnings went from two to four to eight to sixteen

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to thirty two bucks a share Well then twenty times

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earnings was ludicrously cheap Growth was one hundred percent versus

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that zero percent where twenty times earnings Look you know

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decent Well the basic idea and this one is coined

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by Peter Lynch the famed portfolio manager who brought Fidelity

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to fame Is that a peg ratio of one means

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that a stock is basically fairly priced that is P

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E ratios need contexts specifically the context of earnings growth

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The formula takes the P E ratio say it's a

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twenty and then puts it over the annual earnings per

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share growth number and note that it's per share not

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just overall company earnings Like if a company grew earnings

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by acquiring for stock a lot of competitors well it's

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share count would balloon While it's earnings grew fast as

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well but likely the dilution and suffered would mitigate most

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of the upside in earnings growth So on our twenty

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times earnings number a company with no growth gives us

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a peg ratio of twenty over zero which is an

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undefined number But peg ratio is all about how expensive

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the price to earnings ratio is relative to the growth

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of the company Wow we did not see that plot 00:02:45.65 --> [endTime] twist coming yellow

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