The latest mini-selloff in U.S. equities sent the S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio to a recent low of 21.1, but the metric remains highly elevated by historical standards — above the five-year average (17.3) and above the 10-year average (15.5), per FactSet.
By the numbers: "There has been a lot of volatility in the forward P/E ratio this year, falling as low as 13.1 on March 23," FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters tells Axios in an email. "However, the forward 12-month P/E ratio has been above 20.0 pretty consistently since May, peaking at 23.4 on September 2. Prior to this year, the last time the forward 12-month P/E ratio was at or above 20.0 was April 10, 2002."