Was looking at p/e ratios for ETFs on google finance, reuters, yahoo finance… The p/e ratios on google finance and reuters for IJR, VWO and others look strange. Almost as if they’re switched with eps. They don’t look strange on yahoo finance or the ishares website. Is there anything special to know about for calc. p/e for etfs? Can p/e for etfs, such as IJR, even be interpreted the same as the indice for the S&P 600? Will they have very similar p/es? Am I misunderstanding something or has google switched the ratios? Common stocks look fine on google finance, it’s just some etfs that look weird. Don’t look at it too long or it will drive you crazy. Examples: http://www.google.com/finance?q=ijr # P/E 3.01 # Div/yield - # EPS 21.49 http://www.google.com/finance?q=vwo # P/E 3.68 # Div/yield 0.55/1.11 # EPS 13.37
Depending on the etf, futures contracts could cause an issue. That said, a pe multiple can certainly be calculated for a pure stock etf. Honestly, those websites are never truly reliable. Your need a Bloomberg terminal or factset and even then the data can be messy, but at least you can determine what they are pulling.