S&P 500 P/E Ratio (Excl. Neg. Earners)
S&P 500 Price-to-Earnings Ratio — Excluding Negative Earners (TTM)
Live value temporarily unavailable.
Source: Company filings (aggregated)
Data updated daily
What it measures
The S&P 500 P/E ratio (excl. negative earners, trailing twelve months) measures the aggregate price of the index relative to the trailing-twelve-month net income of constituents with positive earnings. By removing loss-making companies from the denominator, this series avoids the distortion caused by negative earners inflating or inverting the ratio: a P/E of 22 means investors pay $22 of price for every $1 of trailing earnings from profitable constituents.
Why it matters
Excluding negative earners produces a more stable and economically interpretable valuation signal than the all-earners P/E, particularly during periods of cyclical stress when a large cohort of companies temporarily turns unprofitable. Elevated readings relative to long-run history have coincided with lower forward returns and wider drawdown risk, while depressed readings have preceded stronger multi-year compounding. Because it is earnings-based rather than price-only, the P/E separates multiple expansion (re-rating) from genuine earnings growth — a distinction a price index alone cannot make. A companion series including negative earners is tracked separately for completeness.
How it is calculated
P/E (TTM, excl. neg. earners) = Σ Market Cap ÷ Σ TTM Net Income (positive earners only)
LENSE computes the S&P 500 P/E (excl. negative earners) as a market-capitalization-weighted aggregate — total index market cap divided by total trailing-twelve-month net income — not a simple average of per-company ratios. Trailing-twelve-month net income is constructed by summing the four most recently reported fiscal quarters per constituent, using as-reported figures to preserve the original filing-date record. Constituents with negative TTM net income are excluded from the denominator. Market capitalization is computed daily from constituent share counts and closing prices. Index constituency is determined point-in-time rather than projecting today's composition backward.
Recent (monthly)
Recent data unavailable.
Data source: Company filings (aggregated). Computed and published by LENSE Analytics.