S&P 500 Earnings Yield (TTM)

Live value temporarily unavailable.

Source: Company filings (aggregated)

Data updated daily

What it measures

The S&P 500 earnings yield is the inverse of the P/E ratio, expressed as a percentage: it measures how much trailing-twelve-month earnings the index generates per dollar of market price. An earnings yield of 4.0% means the index earns $4 of trailing profit for every $100 invested, equivalent to a P/E of 25.

Why it matters

Expressing the P/E as a yield enables direct comparison with fixed-income yields, most notably the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield. The spread between the earnings yield and the risk-free rate is the Equity Risk Premium (ERP) — the compensation investors receive for bearing equity risk over holding a government bond. When the earnings yield falls below the Treasury yield, the ERP turns negative, implying equities offer no yield premium over risk-free assets on an earnings basis. This comparison is the foundation of most top-down asset allocation frameworks and has historically been a reliable signal of relative equity valuation extremes.

How it is calculated

Earnings Yield (TTM) = (Σ TTM Net Income ÷ Σ Market Cap) × 100

LENSE computes the S&P 500 earnings yield as aggregate TTM net income from profitable constituents divided by aggregate market cap, expressed as a percentage — the reciprocal of the excl.-negative-earners P/E ratio. Trailing-twelve-month net income is constructed by summing the four most recently reported fiscal quarters per constituent using as-reported figures. Constituents with negative TTM net income are excluded. Market capitalization is computed daily from constituent share counts and closing prices. Index constituency is resolved point-in-time using point-in-time index constituency.

Recent (monthly)

Recent data unavailable.

Data source: Company filings (aggregated). Computed and published by LENSE Analytics.