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Non-Tech : TD Waterhouse Group (TWE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joseph Francis Torti who wrote (429)	6/23/1999 2:44:00 PM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1413

With a PE of 162, the stock looks, shall we say, a little expensive. Actually, what matters is the PE based on future earnings (the E in PE), like 1999 or year 2000 earnings estimates. Since there are no estimates yet (research coverage usually starts by the underwriters 20 days after the IPO) there is no future 'E', so there is no PE based on 'consensus' numbers. Taking PE off a web site is pretty useless, since they don't necessarily show how they calculate the 'E' they used (future 4 quarters E? 1999 E? trailing 4 quarters E? previous fiscal year E?, etc.). Probably your source is taking something like 1998 earnings, which isn't very meaningful since TWE and all the other online brokers are expected to have a much stronger financial performance this year and going forward. Not saying TWE is cheap, just pointing out PE of 162x 1998 earnings is meaningless in determining the value of the stock. Elroy