Powayseller, there’s no way you’d convince any investor of some holy grail P/E number.. QCOM had a negative P/E for MANY years, all the while it was exploding.. and it’s now profitiable.. ‘Potential’ is a very important factor in determining what sort of P/E you’ll find accceptable.. If looking at P/E was the only factor in determining what a good buy would be.. then it’d be easy.. A low P/E can also indicate bad things, like the companies market is going to disappear or they are about to fall apart, or what they are selling is seasonal(oil)… but if you are always looking for a low P/E, in general I think you’re going to end up with low volatiltiy stocks.. maybe that’s what you’re looking for.. sometimes that can be synonmous with low risk, but nothing is certain..

I think COP is sort of an anomoly because the energy market is cyclical and they typically fall in the summer and rise in the winter during storms and such..