Price
Earnings
per Share
Dividends
per Share
Deere & Co. $ 65.70 $ 4.40 $1.16
Google 528.33 27.72 0.00
The Coca-Cola Company 69.05 5.37 1.88
a. Determine the price-earnings ratio and dividend yield for the three companies. Round to one decimal place.
b. Explain the differences in these ratios across the three companies.
Answer:
a. Price-Earnings Ratio = Market Price per Share of Common Stock
Earnings per Share
Deere & Co.:
Google:
The Coca-Cola Company:
$65.70
$4.40
$528.33
$27.72
$69.05
$5.37
= 14.9
= 19.1
= 12.9
Dividend Yield = Dividends per Share of Common Stock
Market Price per Share of Common Stock
Deere & Co.: $1.16
$65.70 = 1.8%
Google: $0.00
$528.33 = 0.0%
The Coca-Cola Company: $1.88
$69.05 = 2.7%
b. Coca-Cola has a large dividend yield, but the smallest price-earnings ratio. Stock market participants value Coca-Cola common stock on the basis of its dividend. The dividend is an attractive yield at this date. Because of this attractive yield, stock market participants do not expect the share price to grow significantly, hence the low price-earnings valuation. This is a typical pattern for companies that pay high dividends. Google shows the opposite extreme. Google pays no dividend, and thus has no dividend yield. However, Google has the largest price-earnings ratio of the three companies. Stock market participants are expecting a return on their investment from appreciation in the stock price. Deere & Co. is priced in between the other two companies. Deere & Co has a moderate dividend, producing a yield of 1.8%. The price-earnings ratio is 14.9. Thus, Deere & Co. is expected to produce shareholder returns through a combination of some share price appreciation and a moderate dividend.