Yup, spot on. A P/E ratio is useful but it needs to be used in...

Yup, spot on. A P/E ratio is useful but it needs to be used in the right context and right now the earnings of BAL is too volatile and unknown for that measure to be used in isolation of others. $38.6 was a P/E of 10 based on the last published financials not pro-forma and so anything north of that price is on "maybe's" and in this case it was the small US Hedge fund taking a punt and FIL from Singapore exiting as they were rumoured to be part of the Jan and co. band of merry men.

The soon to be released half year results will provide the ability to do some interim analytics but it wont be able to be compared to previous half years due to instability of the business, shift in strategy causing a revenue source change and such a dramatic downgrade of actual earnings as well as possible cost structure changes with contracts renewed.

I won't use a correlating example this time or the dumb bunnies in here will mistakenly think it is a peer comparison and post with naivety and in ignorance but for the most part many others will know which companies have gone through a similar scenario and see the risk in doing period comparisons when the business has changed so much.

The concerning thing for BAL on an ongoing basis in the meantime is the quick ratio and from memory someone did a calculation and simply put it landed sub 1.0 which is a concern. Alludes to being cash-flow insolvent.