How Does Mercantile Bank’s (NASDAQ:MBWM) P/E Compare To Its Industry, After The Share Price Drop? – Yahoo Finance

Unfortunately for some shareholders, the Mercantile Bank (NASDAQ:MBWM) share price has dived 33% in the last thirty days. Indeed the recent decline has arguably caused some bitterness for shareholders who have held through the 38% drop over twelve months.

All else being equal, a share price drop should make a stock more attractive to potential investors. While the market sentiment towards a stock is very changeable, in the long run, the share price will tend to move in the same direction as earnings per share. So, on certain occasions, long term focussed investors try to take advantage of pessimistic expectations to buy shares at a better price. One way to gauge market expectations of a stock is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). A high P/E ratio means that investors have a high expectation about future growth, while a low P/E ratio means they have low expectations about future growth.

Check out our latest analysis for Mercantile Bank

How Does Mercantile Bank’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

Mercantile Bank’s P/E of 6.72 indicates relatively low sentiment towards the stock. We can see in the image below that the average P/E (8.9) for companies in the banks industry is higher than Mercantile Bank’s P/E.

Mercantile Bank’s P/E tells us that market participants think it will not fare as well as its peers in the same industry. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. If you consider the stock interesting, further research is recommended. For example, I often monitor director buying and selling.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. When earnings grow, the ‘E’ increases, over time. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others — and that may attract buyers.

Most would be impressed by Mercantile Bank earnings growth of 19% in the last year. And earnings per share have improved by 19% annually, over the last five years. So one might expect an above average P/E ratio.

Remember: P/E Ratios Don’t Consider The Balance Sheet

Don’t forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Theoretically, a business can improve its earnings (and produce a lower P/E in the future) by investing in growth. That means taking on debt (or spending its cash).

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

Mercantile Bank’s Balance Sheet

Mercantile Bank’s net debt is 85% of its market cap. This is enough debt that you’d have to make some adjustments before using the P/E ratio to compare it to a company with net cash.

The Verdict On Mercantile Bank’s P/E Ratio

Mercantile Bank has a P/E of 6.7. That’s below the average in the US market, which is 13.0. The company has a meaningful amount of debt on the balance sheet, but that should not eclipse the solid earnings growth. The low P/E ratio suggests current market expectations are muted, implying these levels of growth will not continue. Given Mercantile Bank’s P/E ratio has declined from 10.0 to 6.7 in the last month, we know for sure that the market is more worried about the business today, than it was back then. For those who prefer invest in growth, this stock apparently offers limited promise, but the deep value investors may find the pessimism around this stock enticing.