22/06/2026
Someone told me to break down the grammar in my posts. Fair point. So today let me explain the most common terms you will keep seeing in this series in the plainest English possible.
1. PE Ratio, Price to Earnings Ratio...
Think of it as the price tag on a company's profits. If a stock has a PE of 5x it means you are paying N5 for every N1 the company earns. Lower PE generally means cheaper. Higher PE means the market expects big future growth and is paying a premium for it today.
2. EPS, Earnings Per Share..
This tells you how much profit the company made for each share you own. If EPS is N25 it means for every single share sitting in your portfolio the company earned N25 in profit on your behalf. Higher EPS is better. Growing EPS year after year is even better.
3. Beta...
This measures how much a stock moves compared to the overall market. The market itself is always 1.0. A Beta of 2.0 means the stock moves twice as much as the market in both directions. A Beta of 0.5 means it moves half as much. High Beta means exciting but risky. Low Beta means boring but stable. For long term investors boring usually wins.
4. Dividend Yield...
This is the income a company pays you just for holding its shares, expressed as a percentage of the share price. If a stock costs N100 and pays you N8 per year in dividends, the yield is 8%. This is your passive income while you wait for the share price to grow.
5. ROE, Return on Equity...
This tells you how efficiently a company uses shareholder money to generate profit. ROE of 44% means for every N100 of your money invested in the business it generates N44 in profit. The higher the better. It is one of the clearest signs of a well run company.
6.ROIC, Return on Invested Capital...
Similar to ROE but broader. It measures how much profit the company generates from all the capital it uses, including both shareholder money and borrowed money. A ROIC above 20% is considered excellent. Above 50% is exceptional. Okomu Oil in our series