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S&P 500 P/E ratio: 27.5 · forward 18.7

The S&P 500 trades at 27.5× trailing 12-month earnings and 18.7× forward estimates (as of market close, Jul 22, 2026) — a weighted harmonic mean across the index's members, computed from earnings as filed with the SEC. The median member trades at 25.1×. That puts today's multiple above 95.5% of all months since 1871 (long-run median 14.9).

Trailing P/E
27.5
Forward P/E
18.7
Median member
25.1
Price/Book
5.5

Trailing P/E since 1871

51729405218801900192019401960198020002020now 27.5
Long-run median
14.9
Long-run mean
16.0
Cheapest month
5.3 · Dec 1917
Richest month
123.7 · May 2009

Historical series: price ÷ trailing 12-month as-reported earnings (Robert Shiller's data, monthly, through Jun 2023); spikes above 50 (collapsed recession earnings, e.g. 2009's 123.7) are clipped for readability. The dashed green line is today's bottom-up value.

The same history as a distribution

Every month since 1871, binned by its P/E — the green bin is where today sits (hover a bar for example years).

6–7: 40 months (e.g. 1916, 1917, 1949, 1980)7–8: 64 months (e.g. 1916, 1950, 1979, 1982)8–9: 61 months (e.g. 1873, 1941, 1978, 1982)9–10: 117 months (e.g. 1873, 1923, 1947, 1984)10–11: 111 months (e.g. 1873, 1924, 1952, 1985)11–12: 126 months (e.g. 1871, 1879, 1947, 1989)12–13: 140 months (e.g. 1871, 1904, 1940, 1989)13–14: 140 months (e.g. 1876, 1893, 1930, 2011)14–15: 121 months (e.g. 1881, 1906, 1939, 2012)15–16: 131 months (e.g. 1885, 1902, 1946, 2012)16–17: 134 months (e.g. 1885, 1928, 1967, 2012)17–18: 136 months (e.g. 1885, 1935, 1968, 2013)18–19: 137 months (e.g. 1886, 1958, 1972, 2014)19–20: 55 months (e.g. 1885, 1938, 1996, 2019)20–21: 42 months (e.g. 1894, 1962, 2007, 2022)21–22: 39 months (e.g. 1894, 1961, 2004, 2019)22–23: 57 months (e.g. 1894, 1993, 2018, 2023)23–24: 45 months (e.g. 1895, 2003, 2017, 2023)24–25: 20 months (e.g. 1894, 1992, 2016, 2021)25–26: 11 months (e.g. 1894, 1934, 1998, 2021)26–27: 16 months (e.g. 1894, 2000, 2008, 2021)27–28: 14 months (e.g. 1998, 2000, 2001, 2020) · now 27.5 · Jul 22, 202628–29: 15 months (e.g. 1998, 2000, 2003, 2021)29–30: 7 months (e.g. 1998, 1999, 2000, 2021)30–31: 3 months (e.g. 1998, 1999, 2021)31–32: 4 months (e.g. 1998, 2002, 2003, 2020)32–33: 9 months (e.g. 1999, 2002, 2020)33–34: 5 months (e.g. 1999, 2001, 2021)34–35: 3 months (e.g. 2008, 2020)35–36: 3 months (e.g. 2001, 2020, 2021)36–37: 1 month (e.g. 2001)37–38: 3 months (e.g. 2001, 2002, 2020)38–39: 0 months39–40: 2 months (e.g. 2001, 2020)40–41: 0 months41–42: 1 month (e.g. 2002)42–43: 1 month (e.g. 2009)43–44: 2 months (e.g. 2001, 2002)44–45: 1 month (e.g. 2002)45–46: 0 months46–47: 3 months (e.g. 2001, 2002)47–48: 0 months48–49: 0 months49–50: 0 months50–51: 0 months51–52: 0 months52–53: 0 months53–54: 0 months54–55: 0 months55–56: 0 months56–57: 0 months57–58: 0 months58–59: 10 months (e.g. 2008, 2009)now 27.5 · Jul 22, 20267142128354249561400

Where members trade: P/E distribution

One number hides the spread. Each bar is the share of index weight in that trailing-P/E range (member count on the right).

P/EShare of index weight% Example stocks
<10
1.3%IBKRT
10–15
5.1%BACWFC
15–20
9.1%JPMMS
20–25
13.6%MSFTMETA
25–30
17.8%GOOGLAMZN
30–40
26.5%NVDAAAPL
40–60
11.2%MULLY
60+
11.2%AVGOTSLA
n/a
3.2%BRK-BINTC

"n/a" = loss-making members or no earnings data. Tickers are each range's largest members (hover for the exact P/E). 96.8% of tracked index weight has a valid trailing P/E.

FAQ

What is the P/E ratio of the S&P 500?
The S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio is currently about 27.5 on trailing 12-month earnings (weighted harmonic mean across all index members, from SEC-filed earnings), and about 18.7 on forward earnings estimates.
Is the S&P 500's P/E high right now?
At 27.5, the index trades richer than 95.5% of all months since 1871 (long-run median 14.9). High multiples have historically meant lower long-run forward returns, but the P/E alone has little power over 1-year horizons.
How is the index P/E calculated?
We compute the weighted harmonic mean of members' trailing P/E ratios — total weight ÷ Σ(weight ÷ P/E), the standard factsheet method, which is equivalent to total market cap ÷ total earnings and keeps a few extreme multiples from distorting the average. Member earnings come from our SEC EDGAR pipeline (TTM as filed), weights from the tracking fund's N-PORT filing rolled forward daily.

Notes & related

Current values are computed bottom-up: index weights from the tracking fund's SEC N-PORT filing (rolled forward daily by price), member earnings from our SEC EDGAR pipeline (TTM, as filed; Twelve Data fallback where a filing hasn't landed yet), refreshed with each market close. Forward P/E uses analyst consensus estimates via Twelve Data. The historical chart uses Robert Shiller's long-run series (as-reported earnings), so the two methodologies differ slightly where they meet. For the cyclically adjusted version, see the Shiller P/E (CAPE); for who's in the index at what weight, the full constituents list; for the cheapest large caps, value stocks. Not investment advice.

ChartRow is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, S&P Global, or Nasdaq, Inc. "S&P 500®" and "Dow Jones®" are registered trademarks of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC; "Nasdaq-100®" is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc. They are used here only to identify the indexes discussed. All index-related figures on this page are independently derived from public sources — SEC filings, Robert Shiller's public dataset, and our own computations — not from any index provider's data feed.