This ratio represents how much the stock costs versus how much money the company is making. Because you know much investors are willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings, you can learn how much growth people expect from this stock. Effectively it tells you if the stock is cheap, too expensive, or just about fair value, and therefore whether it is more likely appreciate or depreciate.
You should generally look for companies with low P/E ratios. During the dot-com bubble, many companies achieved outrageous P/E ratios because people had wild expectations for the success of these companies and purchased their stock willy-nilly. People began to think that P/E ratio was irrelevant, and that the stock market had infinite upward momentum.
After the bubble, P/E ratio is again in vogue. When looking for a stock, you should compare the P/E ratio of a company to other companies in its sector. It is useless to compare ratios across industries because the dynamics of different industries can vary widely. It is not totally unadvisable to purchase companies that are not profitable and therefore have no P/E ratio. These companies represent higher risk investments.
It is also important to note that P/E ratios are based an accounting measure of earnings, and that means they are subject to tinkering and clever manipulation. One should look at many other factors when picking a stock. P/E ratio is just one measure of a company's health and prospects for future success. Companies that are profitable have stocks with P/E, or Price to Earnings ratios.
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