Smaller U.S. Companies Give Up Bull Market’s P/E Premium
Smaller U.S. companies no longer trade at the relatively high valuations that emerged after stocks began a bull market almost seven years ago. The gap between price-earnings ratios on the Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 Index and the S&P 500 shrank this month to 1.4 points, the narrowest since March 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The comparison is based on index values relative to projected profit. The move was highlighted today in a report by Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. market strategist at RBC Capital Markets.