Value Traps Are Painful ... Read the Footnotes

A stock trading at half its former price is not necessarily a bargain. Perhaps its earnings power has halved or its balance sheet can no longer support the business. Maybe its generous dividend is being financed with borrowed money. A low valuation ratio tells us what we are paying relative to one measure of fundamentals. It does not, by itself, tell us what the business is worth or whether those fundamentals will endure.