The Price to Earnings Multiple (aka Price to Earnings Ratio) is probably the single most widely used valuation in the investing world.
The multiple is the ratio of the current stock price to its Earnings per share (EPS).
Generally, stocks with P/E Multiples of less than 20 are considered good buys, but ratios by industry vary. Banks tend to have lower P/E multiples while Tech companies usually sport higher ones. Historically, the S&P 500 has an p/e average of around 20, which makes up a generic total market average. The multiple is a very useful tool for evaluating a company, but should not serve as the only value indicating while shopping for stocks.
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