Book value – A company’s common stock equity as it appears on a balance sheet, equal to total assets minus liabilities, preferred stock, and intangible assets such as goodwill. A company’s book value often differs substantially from economic value, especially in industries such as media.
Business value/Intrinsic value – The perceived or estimated actual value of a security, as opposed to its current market price or book value. Business value can be evaluated based on what a knowledgeable buyer would pay for a business if the company were sold in its entirety.
Growth investing – Investors who look for companies based on whether the stock of a company is growing earnings and/or revenue faster than the industry as a whole or the overall market. Growth investors generally expect high rates of growth to persist, and the stock, in turn, to deliver returns exceeding the market’s. A growth mutual fund is generally one that emphasizes stocks believed to offer above-average growth prospects, with little to no emphasis on the stock’s current price.
M & A (Mergers & Acquisitions) – Merger: the combining of two or more entities into one, through a purchase acquisition or a pooling of interests. Acquisition: can also be called a takeover, and is defined as acquiring control of a corporation, called a target, by stock purchase or exchange, either hostile or friendly.
Market capitalization (market cap or cap) – The market price of an entire company on any given day, calculated by multiplying the number of shares outstanding by the price per share.
Momentum investing – Approach to investing based on the belief that stock price trends are likely to continue. Momentum investors tend to buy stocks that have been outperforming the market and to sell those stocks when their relative performance deteriorates. Momentum investors do not consider a company’s underlying value or fundamentals in their investment decisions.
Multiple – A ratio used to measure a stock’s valuation, usually greater than 1. Sometimes used to mean price/earnings ratio.
P/B or Price-to-Book Ratio – A stock’s capitalization divided by its book value. The value is the same whether the calculation is done for the whole company or on a per-share basis.
P/E or Price-to-Earnings Ratio – The most common measure of a stock’s valuation. It is equal to a stock’s capitalization divided by its after-tax earnings over a 12-month period. The value is the same whether the calculation is done for the whole company or on a per-share basis. Equivalently, the cost an investor in a given stock must pay per dollar of current annual earnings. Also called earnings multiple.
Share repurchase – Program through which a corporation buys back its own shares in the open market, typically an indication that the corporation’s management believes the stock price is undervalued.
Value investing – Investors who utilize valuation measures such as business value (including growth rate), price/earnings ratio, price/book ratio, and yield to gauge the attractiveness of a company. Managers who employ a value investment style believe that the true, underlying value of a company is not reflected in its current share price, and, over time, the price has potential to increase as the market recognizes the overall value of the business. Value stocks sell at relatively low prices in relation to their underlying business value, earnings, or book value.
Stocks become undervalued for a variety of reasons, including an overall market decline, or when a specific industry falls into disfavor and investors view all companies in that industry in the same light. Consequently, an individual company’s stock price may fall, even though it may be only temporarily affected by the industry’s problems and its underlying value has remained unchanged.
"x times earnings" ("12 times earnings") – Another way to express a stock’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. A stock with a P/E ratio of 12 sells at 12 times earnings.