"If I had to choose one metric to analyze a company, I would pick the P/E (price to earnings) ratio because it allows you to see if a stock is under or overvalued. When compared to similar companies, a low P/E ratio might indicate that the price of the stock is currently inexpensive relative to its earnings, whereas a high P/E would show that its valuation has become too high. While it's important to look at multiple metrics in order to see the full story around a stock, I think the P/E ratio would be most helpful in this situation."