First, it's great for investors to have an idea of what «multiple range» a company has traded at in the past — there's a lot of value to this, and most relevant for cyclical firms (mainly industrials) that may, from a fundamental standpoint,
exhibit similar (but not
identical)
patterns with respect to both earnings and their PE through the course of each economy cycle: think Boeing (BA) and the commercial aerospace cycle; Ford (F) and consumer demand for auto sales; or United Continental (UAL) with respect to premium air travel demand.