ValuationFrom SEC filings · 200 companies · updates as each 10-Q lands
What the Largest US Companies Actually Earn, and What You Pay For It
Built entirely from our own EDGAR extraction. Every share count comes from a filing cover page and every earnings figure from the statement that reported it, with each quarter entering the series on the date it was first filed, not the date it ended. No index vendor, no smoothed estimates, no forward numbers.
Latest read
At June 28, 2026 the 198 largest US companies in our financials base trade at 29.3× trailing earnings: $56.1T of market value against $1.92T of net income over the last four reported quarters. That is elevated, and short of extreme. It sits at the 82th percentile of the 12.0×–38.5× range this basket has recorded since 2011, well below the 38.5× reached against the pandemic earnings trough. Against the recent past it is not elevated at all: the five-year median is 28.4×, so the basket is priced where it has been priced since 2021, and the percentile is a statement about the 2010s. The move is broad. The median company in the basket sits at 28.3×, close to the cap-weighted figure, so a few mega-caps are not carrying it. Read the series as a cross-section of today's large caps, not as the market's valuation history: the basket is built from today's winners, which flatters every earlier reading. One reading here is not merely elevated. Inverted, the basket yields 3.41% against a 10-year note at 4.38%, so a dollar of market value now earns 0.97 points less than a Treasury pays, against +3.45 points in 2011. The basket covers 73% of the market value of US filers, so it is most of the reachable market rather than all of it.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-08-25 · Open ↓Close ↑
Source
SEC EDGAR XBRL filings for the covered companies (net income and revenue from the statements, share counts from filing cover pages), joined to our daily price data and the Treasury 10-year yield
Methodology
Total market value over trailing four filed quarters of net income; quarters dated by first filing, never by period end; share counts split-adjusted by filed date; median company, fixed cohort and concentration published alongside
Updates
Rebuilt every day in the pipeline against that day's closes; the earnings side changes as each 10-Q and 10-K landsLast: 2026-08-25
Maintained & reviewed by Yuriy Matso — methodology shown on the page.
Aggregate valuationtrailing · filed only
ELEVATED
29.3×
82th percentile of its own range since 2011 — a cross-section, not the market
Today
29.3×
198 cos
5-yr med
28.4×
20 quarters
Peak
38.5×
2021-03
Trough
12.0×
2011-09
$56.1T of market value against $1.92T of net income over the last four filed quarters. The median company reads 28.3×, so the level is broad. The peak is an earnings trough, not a valuation extreme.
Why this differs from a published P/E
- It is not the S&P 500. It is the 200 companies we hold full filing histories for. That basket is larger and more concentrated than the index, so the multiple runs higher.
- Trailing, never forward. Only quarters that have actually been filed. No analyst estimates and no operating-earnings adjustments, so write-downs stay in.
- Loss-makers subtract. Earnings are summed across the basket, so a large loss lifts the multiple, exactly as it does in an index-level figure.
Median company
28.3×
equal weight, profitable
Fixed cohort
26.1×
122 cos held since 2011
Basket market cap
$56.1T
198 companies
US market coverage
73%
of $76.5T US filers
Earnings yield
3.41%
10-yr note 4.38%
Yield vs 10-year
-0.97 pts
was +3.45 in 2011
01
Aggregate P/E since 2011
Range:
02
How much of the re-rating is composition
Range:
03
The median company, equal weight
Range:
04
Concentration
Range:
05
Earnings yield against the 10-year
Range:
06
Largest holdings at June 28, 2026
07
Method
coverage
$56.1T of $76.5T across 5,512 issuers. The denominator starts from $91.3T of US-listed value and makes two corrections. Share classes are counted once: the universe file carries the whole issuer's value on each class row, so GOOG and GOOGL both read about $4.0T and summing them would double-count Alphabet. And $13.0T of foreign filers is removed, because companies reporting under IFRS on a 20-F or 40-F can never enter a base this extractor builds from US GAAP. That list is hand-maintained and thin in the small-cap tail, which understates coverage slightly.
timing
Each quarter enters on first_filed — when the market first saw it. Values are latest-vintage (restated) placed at their original reporting date.
shares
Cover-page count (dei:EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding) where tagged, falling back to weighted-average diluted for multi-class issuers.
earnings
Trailing four quarters of net income, summed across the basket. Loss-makers subtract, as they do in an index-level multiple.
survivorship
The basket is today's largest US companies, so earlier readings omit both the failures of that era and the high-multiple companies that listed later. Both omissions bias the historical multiple down and overstate the re-rating. The fixed cohort isolates that effect.
Aggregate valuationtrailing · filed only
ELEVATED
29.3×
82th percentile of its own range since 2011 — a cross-section, not the market
Today
29.3×
198 cos
5-yr med
28.4×
20 quarters
Peak
38.5×
2021-03
Trough
12.0×
2011-09
$56.1T of market value against $1.92T of net income over the last four filed quarters. The median company reads 28.3×, so the level is broad. The peak is an earnings trough, not a valuation extreme.
Why this differs from a published P/E
- It is not the S&P 500. It is the 200 companies we hold full filing histories for. That basket is larger and more concentrated than the index, so the multiple runs higher.
- Trailing, never forward. Only quarters that have actually been filed. No analyst estimates and no operating-earnings adjustments, so write-downs stay in.
- Loss-makers subtract. Earnings are summed across the basket, so a large loss lifts the multiple, exactly as it does in an index-level figure.
How Market P/E Ratio Works
- 1Read earnings from the filings, not from estimatesNet income comes from each company's own 10-Q and 10-K as tagged in XBRL, summed across the basket over the trailing four reported quarters. There are no analyst forecasts and no operating-earnings adjustments, so write-downs and one-off charges stay in exactly as filed.
- 2Price the basket with the shares actually outstandingMarket value uses the cover-page share count from each filing, which is a point-in-time count of shares in issue rather than a weighted average, and is the only share series that exists for all four quarters. Multi-class issuers tag it per class, so those fall back to the weighted-average diluted count.
- 3Date every quarter by when it was first filedA quarter enters the series on the day it was first reported, never on the day it ended. Dating by period end would pretend the market knew a December quarter on December 31 when it was filed five weeks later, and would put a bend in every history that crosses an earnings season.
- 4Divide the whole by the wholeThe ratio is total market value over total trailing earnings, so a large loss lifts the multiple exactly as it does in any index-level figure. The median company is published beside it, which is the check on whether the aggregate is being carried by a few names.
Who Uses Market P/E Ratio
Investors asking whether stocks are expensive
A single multiple means little without its own history. This one is shown against the full range it has recorded, and against its five-year median, because those two answers often disagree — a reading can sit high against the 2010s and dead level against the recent past.
Anyone comparing stocks to bonds
Inverted, the multiple is an earnings yield that can be set beside the 10-year Treasury. That spread is the comparison the market actually makes, and it has spent most of the last two years on the wrong side of zero.
Readers who distrust index P/E figures
Published multiples vary wildly depending on whether they use forward or trailing earnings, operating or reported. This one states its basket, its earnings definition and its timing rule, and every number traces to a filing.
People watching concentration
The share of the basket held by its five largest companies is on the page beside the multiple. As that share climbs, an aggregate becomes a statement about fewer and fewer companies.
Pro Tips
01
Check the multiple against the median company
When the cap-weighted figure runs far above the median company, a handful of large names are setting the level. When the two sit close, the reading is broad and means more.
02
A spike can be an earnings collapse
The highest multiple in this record is the 2021 pandemic reading, when prices had recovered while trailing earnings still carried the collapse. Read any spike against the price line before calling it a valuation extreme.
03
Percentile and level answer different questions
Where a reading sits in its own range says how unusual it is. What it costs against bonds says whether it is attractive. Those can point opposite ways, and both are on the page.
04
Coverage is the honesty check
The basket covers a stated share of addressable US market value. As that share grows the aggregate speaks for more of the market, and the number is published so the reader can judge rather than assume.
Common Issues & Solutions
This does not match the S&P 500 P/E I saw elsewhere▾
It is not the S&P 500. It is the companies we hold complete filing histories for, which skews larger and more concentrated than the index, so the multiple runs higher. It is also trailing and as-reported, where many published figures are forward or operating.
The history looks too cheap in the early years▾
The basket is built from today's largest companies, so earlier readings omit that era's failures and the high-multiple companies that listed later. Both push the historical multiple down. The fixed-cohort line on the page isolates how much of the change is composition.
A famous company is missing▾
Foreign issuers filing 20-F or 40-F under IFRS cannot be read by an extractor built for US GAAP, and a few US companies tag revenue or share counts only dimensionally. Each exclusion is deliberate and recorded rather than silently patched.
The multiple moved without prices moving▾
Earnings are the other half. A quarter dropping out of the trailing window can move the ratio on a day the market does nothing, which is why the earnings total is published beside the multiple.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the market P/E ratio?▾
It is the total market value of a group of companies divided by their total earnings over the last twelve months. It answers what a dollar of current profit costs. A higher number means investors are paying more for each dollar earned, either because they expect growth or because they are willing to accept a lower return.
Is this the S&P 500 P/E ratio?▾
No. It is the largest US companies whose complete SEC filing histories we hold, which is a larger and more concentrated basket than the index, so the multiple reads higher. The page publishes what share of addressable US market value the basket covers so the difference is measurable rather than assumed.
Does it use trailing or forward earnings?▾
Trailing, and only quarters that have actually been filed. There are no analyst estimates and no operating-earnings adjustments, so impairments and one-off charges remain in the figure. That makes it more volatile than a forward multiple and harder to flatter.
Why do loss-making companies raise the ratio?▾
Earnings are summed across the basket, so a large loss subtracts from the total and lifts the multiple. That is how index-level multiples work, and it is the honest treatment: the market value of a loss-making company is real, and so is the loss.
How does the earnings yield compare to bonds?▾
Inverting the multiple gives an earnings yield, which can be set against the 10-year Treasury. When that spread is negative the basket earns less per dollar of market value than a government bond pays, which has been the case recently and was not through most of the 2010s.
How far back does the history go, and can it be trusted early on?▾
To 2011. The early years are the weakest part of the record: the basket is built from today's largest companies, so it omits that era's failures and the companies that listed later. That biases the old readings down and overstates how much the market has re-rated. A fixed cohort held constant since the start is published beside it for exactly that reason.
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Last updated: 2026-08-25