US Price-to-Sales Ratio
Current US P/S
As of August 2026 · ratio
Source: multpl — S&P 500 price-to-sales
By Dominic Roe · Data Engineer & Business Intelligence Developer Updated August 2026
- Historical average
- 1.81
- 301 months
- Historical median
- 1.64
- Percentile rank
- 100th percentile
- vs full history
- All-time range
- 0.80 – 3.83
- Last updated
- August 2026
- since December 2000
Understanding this metric
What is it?
The price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of the US stock market (S&P 500) divides the index price by its revenue (sales) per share. Because it uses the top line rather than profits, it is harder to distort with accounting choices or one-off charges, which makes it a useful cross-check on earnings-based gauges.
How is it calculated?
It is the price of the S&P 500 divided by its trailing sales per share. A P/S of 2 means investors pay $2 for every $1 of annual revenue. The series shown here is multpl.com's quarterly S&P 500 price-to-sales, resampled to a monthly cadence (each quarter carried forward) so it lines up with the other metrics; the data begins in 2000.
Historical interpretation
A higher P/S means a more expensive market relative to revenue; a lower one, cheaper. Its strength is robustness: revenue is far harder to manage than earnings or book value. Its weakness is that it ignores profitability — a dollar of high-margin software revenue is worth more than a dollar of low-margin retail revenue — so the long rise in corporate profit margins has lifted the 'fair' P/S over time. Read it against its own history and beside margin-aware measures.
Limitations
P/S says nothing about costs or margins, so it can make highly profitable markets look expensive and thin-margin ones look cheap. Expanding profit margins have raised the ratio's normal range, complicating cross-era comparison. The series also begins only in 2000, a short history relative to CAPE. Best used as one cross-check among several.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good price-to-sales ratio for the S&P 500?
There is no universal level, and it has trended up as profit margins have widened. Judge today's reading against the metric's own history — the average, median and percentile above — rather than a fixed threshold.
Why use price-to-sales instead of the P/E ratio?
Revenue is much harder to manipulate than reported earnings and does not swing to extremes when profits temporarily collapse, so price-to-sales is a steadier cross-check. The trade-off is that it ignores profitability, so it should be read alongside earnings-based measures, not instead of them.
How is it calculated on this page?
It is multpl.com's S&P 500 price-to-sales series, published quarterly and resampled here to a monthly cadence (each quarter's value carried forward) so it aligns with the site's other metrics. The history begins in 2000.
Is the data real?
The site clearly labels every series as either real imported data or generated sample (mock) data. Sample data is for demonstration only and must not be used for investment decisions.
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