A company’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is a measure of how much it costs an investor to buy one dollar of a company’s profits. So a P/E of 25 means it will cost an investor $25 to buy one dollar of a company’s profits.
In general, a lower P/E number means a stock could be oversold. However, investors should be less concerned about a company’s individual number and more concerned about how its number compares to other companies in its sector. They may also look at it compared to a benchmark index or with companies that have a similar market capitalization (market cap). A stock that is trading significantly lower than others in its sector may indicate that the stock is oversold.