stocks are a claim to a long-term stream of cash flows that will actually be distributed to investors over time, and that this stream of cash flows cannot be estimated from a single year's earnings number. The main reason for this is that profit margins vary from year-to-year over the business cycle, and tend to mean-revert over the long-term. Earnings (net and operating) tend to be depressed during periods of economic strain, but when they reflect compressed profit margins, they are strongly associated with above-average rates of subsequent growth over the following 7-10 years. In contrast, earnings that reflect elevated profit margins are strongly associated with poor rates of subsequent growth. When analysts take earnings figures at face value, and presume to "capitalize" them simply by dividing by interest rates, they demonstrate a Kindergartener's grasp of securities valuation......
the market was moderately, but not historically undervalued, at the 2009 low, which briefly approached the level of valuation that was observed at the 1970 low, but was nowhere close to the valuations seen at points such as 1950, 1974 and 1982. I clearly underestimated the willingness of investors to drive stocks back to strenuous overvaluation so quickly. Earlier this year, the market was more overvalued than at any point prior to the late-1990's bubble, and is currently near the same level of overvaluation as the 1972 and 1987 market peaks. At present, ... the S&P 500 is most likely priced to deliver a 10-year total return of roughly 6%, albeit with the likelihood of significant interim volatility. Stocks are emphatically not cheap on a historical basis.
Defining prosperity down. Paul Krugman, NYT.
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