EARNINGS_YIELD
Inverse of P/E — equity earnings as a yield you can compare to bonds
Official name: S&P 500 Earnings Yield
Latest value
4.1732
as of 2026-03-01
All-time percentile
5th
1-year change
+9.5%
Time series
Showing 20 of 20 data points
About this series
Earnings yield is simply earnings divided by price, expressed as a percentage. It's the inverse of the P/E ratio. If the S&P 500 P/E is 25, the earnings yield is 4% (1 / 25).
Why it matters: It puts stocks on the same scale as bonds. The difference between earnings yield and the 10-year Treasury yield is often called the equity risk premium — the extra return investors demand for holding stocks instead of risk-free bonds. When earnings yield is below the Treasury yield (a negative ERP), stocks look expensive relative to bonds; when it's well above, stocks look cheap.
How to read it: Compare it directly to DGS10 (10-year Treasury yield). Historically, earnings yield has averaged 2-4 percentage points above the 10Y yield. When the gap narrows or inverts, the market is pricing stocks at a premium to bonds on an income basis — this has historically preceded periods of poor equity returns.
Caveats: This version uses Shiller's 10-year average real earnings in the denominator, so it's a smoothed "CAPE yield" rather than trailing-12-month earnings. That makes it more comparable across cycles but less responsive to recent earnings trends.