MONDAY, MAY 19, 2008 Indexes PEs and Yields DJ latest 52-week earnings and dividends adjusted by Dow Divisors at Friday's close. DJ Ind Avg 12986.80 P/E Ratio 87.07 Earns Yield % 1.15 Earns $ 149.16 Divs Yield % 2.45 Divs $ 317.88 Mkt to Book 3.91 Book Value $ 3323.94
I don't generally follow those kinds of numbers. But that seems like an awfully high P/E for the Dow.
PE for the Dow is so high because of losses at AIG and GM. BigCharts shows SPX with PE of 18.1 and DJIA with PE of 64.98.
The Dow Jones is showing the trailing PE as 15.58??? How are the numbers so divergent from what OP is posting? http://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/index.cfm?event=showAvgStats#fund
If we solve for E (earnings) by dividing the Today's price (13028.16) by PE (15.58), we get a trailing earnings of $836.21. If the Dow Jones website can verify that the trailing earnings of the DJIA is $836.21, then the PE of 15.58 would be correct. However, Dow Jones also owns Barron's which is reporting a much higher PE of 87.07 based on trailing earnings of $149.16. Hopefully, someone on ET can find the standard source for this information so everyone is on the same page
The Wall Street Journal (the expert source for the Dow) has the trailing PE for the Dow at 87.34 and the forward PE at 14.29. The high trailing PE is because of huge losses at GM and AIG. Also the trailing PE for the S&P is given as 23.80 and the forward PE at 15.51.