The most commonly cited valuation measure for stocks is the forward price-to-earnings ratio. This is a stock’s current price divided by the consensus estimate for the company’s earnings per share over the next 12 months among analysts working for brokerage firms or for research firms that provide information to brokers. And the S&P 500’s rising forward P/E ratio is often cited as a reason investors had better expect a broad decline for stocks.

But some stocks in the S&P 500 

SPX-0.22% outperformed the index as a whole last year while their forward P/E ratios declined. This means rolling consensus earnings estimates were rising more quickly than the share prices. This action was predicted for some stocks by BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink in October, when he was asked about the market’s high valuation.