if a stock has low growth rate but the investor expect its growth to be long term, its p/e can be high. competitive advantage will make format the expectations of the investors. if the investors think that the competitive advantage of a stock is hard to destroy, the investor will ready to pay high p/e for a low growth stock. Microsoft will have high p/e because investor think that its competitive positioning is hard for its competitor to overcome.
what is the research in the article ?. I think all about stock is not numbers, but about competition.