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How Earnings Affect Valuation

True Tamplin

Written by True Tamplin, BSc, CEPF®
Updated on March 31, 2021

Earnings affect Valuation of a Company

The more earnings a company generates relative to the number of shares it has outstanding, the more valuable each share is to investors.

Therefore, when evaluating a company, analysts calculate the earnings-per-share, or EPS.

EPS is a metric that divides the earnings available to common shareholders by the number of outstanding shares a company has.

For example, if a company has $100,000 in earnings and 50,000 outstanding shares, then its EPS is $2 per share.

Example of How Earnings Affect Valuation

Analysts also use the price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E ratio, which is the market price of a share divided by the EPS.

For example, if the same company sold each share for $10, then the P/E ratio is 5.0.

Equity Valuation

Analysts take this number and compare it to other P/E ratios of similar companies, and with the broader market.

In equity valuation, using ratios such as P/E is called a multiples-based approach.