What's the value of valuation?
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WHAT'S THE VALUE OF VALUATION?
While investors have long used "valuations" to make decisions about where to invest their money, retired strategist Jim Paulsen has been thinking about how the usefulness of such measures has changed over the years.
With the goal of evaluating the "state of cheapness or expensiveness" of a stock or an index, valuation tools include measures like trailing price-to-earnings per share ratios (P/E) or forward P/E.
But Paulsen, an economist and seasoned Wall Street watcher who most recently worked as chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group, writes in his blog that "these comforting investment tools began blowing up in the 1990s."
The reason is that valuations rose dramatically higher than the upper limits of the traditional ranges that used to make sense to investors. In the late 1990s, this applied particularly to technology stocks, which were, of course, heading for the bursting of what became known as the dot-com bubble.
Whether valuation measures make sense, Paulsen boils it down to this:
"All investors at their root – regardless of whether they are primarily oriented towards value, growth, momentum, technical, quantitative, or sector/style rotations -- are value investors. Nobody wants to buy high and sell low."
So he asks, what should they do now? Should investors leave valuation tools by the wayside, still try to adhere to old rules or try to develop "new valuation ranges" based on how the market has traded since the 1990s?
Paulsen says, "None of these are great alternatives." Valuations have been mostly above the 'old' range for roughly 35 years - almost as long as his ~40 year stint working in markets.
But new valuation ranges are also problematic as they have "far less efficacy in accurately assessing stock market valuation risks." However, Paulsen sees ignoring valuation completely as the "riskiest approach of all."
While there isn't an obvious great replacement for the pre-90's model, his suggestion is this. Pay attention to valuation but maybe a bit less religiously.
For example, "If valuations are relatively high but monetary accommodation is evident, yields are declining, disinflation is prominent, and real GDP growth is healthy, aggressive equity position weightings could remain higher than they would have been in earlier decades."
And on the flipside, even if valuations look attractive, "If yields have been rising, private sector confidence is high, balance sheets have been extended, or if market momentum has slowed," then it might be time to reduce equity risk position weightings.
The retiree, who can't quite close the door on Wall Street, publishes his blog "for fun" at paulsenperspectives.substack.com.
(Sinéad Carew)
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FOR THURSDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:
JOBLESS CLAIMS, FLASH PMI, HOME SALES: MAKING THE RATE CUT CASE - CLICK HERE
U.S. STOCKS CHURN AROUND INTO JACKSON HOLE - CLICK HERE
DOW INDUSTRIALS: AMID RECENT SWINGS, TRADERS TURN TO CHARTS - CLICK HERE
THE CASE FOR MORE BALANCE BETWEEN EXPENSIVE TECH AND DEFENSIVES - CLICK HERE
FROM NATWEST TO BAE: ACTIVE FUNDS ADDING UK EXPOSURE - CLICK HERE
DOLLAR BULLS - CLICK HERE
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TEPID START IN STORE FOR EUROPE - CLICK HERE
IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE RATE CUTS - CLICK HERE
Initial claims and JOLTS firings https://reut.rs/46VCBXI
Continuing jobless claims and JOLTS hires https://reut.rs/4cAKvXt
Flash PMI https://reut.rs/3XfhUmc
Existing home sales https://reut.rs/3YWoJKS
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