Update: dictionary.com says twice a year... it continues with the definition with every two years: Biennial. In Britain, it seems, it might mean both... but in the U.S. biannual means twice a year.
We're talking about the price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio. The current 12-month forward P/E ratio is 16.8, FactSet's John Butters said on Friday. This P/E ratio is above the 5-year average (13.8) and the 10-year average (14.1).. But just because stocks are expensive relative to their long-term average is no guarantee that prices are doomed to fall immediately.
Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E). The price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is the relationship between a company's earnings and its share price, and is calculated by dividing the current price per share by the earnings per share. A stock's P/E, also known as its multiple, gives you a sense of what you are paying for a stock in relation to its earning power. For example, a stock with a P/E of 30 is trading at a price 30 times higher than its earnings, while one with a P/E of 15 is trading at 15 times its earnings.