...and SP500 yield is negative???
Vi, I knew your views were pessimistic, but now you've plunged into apocalyptic visions of doom. Not even during the Great Depression did S&P 500 earnings reach zero, much less go negative.
I read somewhere SP500 p/e wind up close to 37 when you used actual earnings, not "pro forma".
WRONG! OK, maybe you really did read that "somewhere", but whoever wrote it is either an idiot or a liar (or has an imaginative definition of "actual" - was it Bill Clinton who wrote it?).
The data is readily available and I've posted it here. S&P publishes two earnings numbers for the index - an "as reported" or GAAP number and an "operating" number. The operating number used by S&P, BTW, has been criticized by some on the Street as too strict and conservative in what it adjusts for (they haven't changed their standards to allow for the "proforma" BS of many companies and analysts). Anyway, here's what S&P's Web site shows as of today, based on 9/21 closing prices:
The current 12 month operating earnings (June,'01) was $47.10, P/E 20.5
The current 12 month as reported earnings (June,'01) was $36.85, P/E 26.2
spglobal.com
Don't believe everything you read.
Bob |
