With 20+ years experience in investment, both personally and...

With 20+ years experience in investment, both personally and professionally - i can tell you PE multiple is neither a determinant of success or failure. A case in point - when LYC was around $2ish a few years back - there was no PE multiple as LYC was loss making. If PE is the sole determinant of one's decision making, one would have missed the the last 2-3 years opportunity in LYC.

LYC at 49x will not deter me from buying if the investment case stacks up ... nor would i simply buy BHP at 15.5x simply because the PE is attractive. Quite simply, apart from the early 2000s when I did own BHP at one stage - i made a point that I will always never invest either in the big 4 banks or RIO/BHP (esp BHP) ~ there are a lot more better ways than to invest in these 'slow' moving monsters whose corporate red-tape meant their success is due more by chance than by sheer genuine entrepreneurship.

And take it from me - i know this from experience in the field. When one buy the major stocks - you are just buying market beta. There is nothing wrong with that if one is happy with accepting beta market returns.