Is a negative P/E ratio good?

Asked by: Dr. Martine Daugherty III  |  Last update: February 8, 2026
Score: 5/5 (55 votes)

A negative P/E ratio often indicates that a company is operating at a loss, which may lead to financial challenges like high debt or the need for additional funding.

What does it mean if P/E ratio is negative?

A negative P/E ratio means the company has negative earnings or is losing money. Even the most established companies experience down periods, which may be due to environmental factors that are out of the company's control.

What is a bad PE ratio?

Typically, the average P/E ratio is around 20 to 25. Anything below that would be considered a good price-to-earnings ratio, whereas anything above that would be a worse P/E ratio.

What does a negative ratio mean?

The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is a stock valuation metric that looks at share price relative to earnings per share. A negative P/E ratio means that a stock is losing money. The formula for the P/E ratio is as follows: P/E ratio = share price / earnings per share.

How to deal with negative PE?

Key Considerations for Investors
  1. Understanding the Causes. Investors should thoroughly analyse why a company is reporting negative earnings. ...
  2. Assessing Longevity. It's crucial to assess whether the company has a viable plan for turning around its financial situation. ...
  3. Risk Assessment. ...
  4. Review Management and Strategy.

Warren Buffett: Book Value Does Not Matter When Analyzing Stocks

25 related questions found

Is it good to buy stocks with negative PE ratio?

A negative P/E ratio shows that a company is currently unprofitable. While it can signal risk, a negative P/E ratio might be acceptable in high-growth industries where profitability takes time. Carefully assess the company's financial health, management plans, and industry position before making an investment decision.

What is the ideal PE ratio?

A good PE (Price to Earnings) ratio in India usually falls between 12 and 20, indicating that a company's stock is neither overvalued nor undervalued. This range balances risk and growth potential, making it ideal for Indian stock market investment.

What does a 0 PE ratio mean?

The p/e or price to earnings ratio is a mathematical ratio. Mathematically, the ratio can't become zero, since the stock price will rarely become a complete zero. The only possibility is the stock getting delisted from the exchange, when technically it's a zero value stock.

What if odds ratio is negative?

Positive odds ratios indicate that the event is more likely to occur, whilst negative odd ratios indicate the event is less likely to occur. Note that the coefficient is the log odds ratio.

Is a negative EPS bad?

A negative EPS is a sign that a company is spending more than its revenue and losing money. What does it mean if EPS decreases? A decreasing EPS can indicate a decline in the company's profits.

What is Tesla's PE ratio?

According to Tesla's latest financial reports and stock price the company's current price-to-earnings ratio (TTM) is 115.76. At the end of 2022 the company had a P/E ratio of 30.6.

Is 30 a good P E ratio?

P/E 30 Ratio Explained

A P/E of 30 is high by historical stock market standards. This type of valuation is usually placed on only the fastest-growing companies by investors in the company's early stages of growth. Once a company becomes more mature, it will grow more slowly and the P/E tends to decline.

Is a negative PB ratio bad?

A negative book value means that a company has more total liabilities than assets. It owes more in numerical terms, but it's not automatically bad news for investors.

What happens if P value is negative?

P-values are probabilities and as such, they range from 0 to 1. They can never be negative.

How to interpret PE ratio?

The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is the proportion of a company's share price to its earnings per share. A high P/E ratio could mean that a company's stock is overvalued or that investors expect high growth rates.

What is a good odds ratio?

An odds ratio of 4 or more is pretty strong and not likely to be able to be explained away by some unmeasured variables. • An odds ratio bigger than 2 and less than 4 is possibly important and should be looked at very carefully.

Do you lose money on negative odds?

Negative odds represent favorites with a better chance at winning. The drawback to this is that your profit on a winning bet is smaller.

What if both odds are negative?

In most cases, the favorite will have negative moneyline odds (less payoff for a safer bet) and the underdog will have positive moneyline odds (more payoff for a risky bet). However, if the teams are evenly matched, both teams can have a negative line at the same time (e.g. −110 −110 or −105 −115), due to house take.

What is the PE ratio of Apple?

Apple (AAPL) PE Ratio (TTM) : 38.55 (As of Jan. 14, 2025)

What is the safest PE ratio?

To give you some sense of what the average for the market is, though, many value investors would refer to 20 to 25 as the average P/E ratio range. And again, like golf, the lower the P/E ratio a company has, the better an investment the metric is saying it is.

What is a good annual dividend yield?

The average dividend yield of some of the top dividend stocks is 12.69%. The best dividend stocks are shares of well-established companies that increase their payouts over time. Investors can also choose to reinvest dividends if they don't need the stream of income. Here's more about dividends and how they work.

Is negative PE ratio good?

A negative P/E ratio indicates that the company is losing money or has negative earnings. Even the most established businesses face downtime, which may be caused by environmental variables outside the company's control.

What should be the pb ratio of stock to buy?

Traditionally, any value under 1.0 is considered desirable for value investors, indicating an undervalued stock may have been identified. However, some value investors may often consider stocks with a less stringent P/B value of less than 3.0 as their benchmark.

What is a good beta for a stock?

A beta coefficient of less than 1 means that a stock tends to be less volatile than the overall market. Utility and real estate stocks are two examples of industries that typically have low betas. A beta coefficient of more than 1 means that a stock tends to be more volatile than the overall market.