Business: Statistics of the Week

Times Earnings. Forgotten is the market phrase of last year: “A good stock sells for 15 times its earnings-per-share.!’ Last week the New York Evening Post endeavored to find out how much the decline in stocks has reduced the earnings-price ratio. Current prices of 405 industrial stocks average 11.8 times estimated 1930 earnings. Forty-three public utility issues average 17.2 times estimated 1930 earnings. Railroad stock prices, however, have not shrunk in proportion to the net. In this group, 37 stocks average 14.1 times net against 12.9 times a year ago. Notable exceptions still exist. General Electric is at 35 times estimated earnings for this year, Consolidated Gas at 26 times.

471 Bank Failures. Swelled by many failures in the South and the Chicago area, bank failures during the first half of the year were 471 against 354 last year, the Federal Reserve Board reported last week. Deposits in these banks were $210,000,000 against only $98,000,000 in the same six months last year. Sixty-two of the banks were members of the Federal Reserve.

Ton Mile. Vital to railroaders, important to all men of business, is a figure reported last week by the Bureau of Railway Economics: Class I railroads handled freight traffic amounting to 34,419.086,000 net ton miles this June, a drop of 6,320,943,000 as against June 1929. A “net ton mile” is accomplished every time one ton of freight is carried one mile. The June drop in ton miles was 15.5% compared to 1929, while the six-month average was only 11% under 1929.

11,858,000,000 Cigarets. While production of cigars and smoking tobacco is dropping slightly, last week’s Treasury figures showed that taxes were paid on 11,858,000,000 cigarets last month compared to 10,724,000,000 in July 1929.