June 26, 2020 10:01 pm ET
This commentary was issued recently by money managers, research firms, and market newsletter writers and has been edited by Barron's.
Fed Model’s Bullish Message
CFRA -- cfraresearch.com
June 22: The overriding question these days is how to justify the market’s march higher. Many analysts acknowledge that the S&P 500’s P/E ratio trades at an historically lofty extreme, relative to its 20-year average, but then remind us that interest rates continue to shimmy beneath an ever-lowered limbo bar. As a result, recent conversations have resurrected the Fed Model, which places a value on the S&P 500 by dividing its forward earnings-per-share estimate by the current interest rate for investment-grade (IG) bonds (target=EPS/rate). The IG rate is selected as investors continually compare the relative attractiveness of stocks versus bonds. Using the June 19 Moody’s Baa yield of 3.57% and the S&P 500’s next-12-month EPS projection of $127.21, according to S&P Capital IQ consensus estimates, the Fed Model implies that the market could be trading around 3563 a year from now, or 15% higher than its June 19 close.
—Sam Stovall