Louisiana-Pacific Corporation's (NYSE:LPX) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 15.5x might make it look like a buy right now compared to the market in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 19x and even P/E's above 33x are quite common. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Louisiana-Pacific certainly has been doing a good job lately as its earnings growth has been positive while most other companies have been seeing their earnings go backwards. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to degrade substantially, possibly more than the market, which has repressed the P/E. If you like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/E?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as low as Louisiana-Pacific's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the market.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 273% last year. Despite this strong recent growth, it's still struggling to catch up as its three-year EPS frustratingly shrank by 46% overall. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 3.3% per annum as estimated by the eleven analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 10% per annum, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that Louisiana-Pacific's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Final Word

We'd say the price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

We've established that Louisiana-Pacific maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider market, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in earnings isn't great enough to justify a higher P/E ratio. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

It is also worth noting that we have found 1 warning sign for Louisiana-Pacific that you need to take into consideration.

You might be able to find a better investment than Louisiana-Pacific. If you want a selection of possible candidates, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a low P/E (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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