When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 20x, you may consider World Kinect Corporation (NYSE:WKC) as an attractive investment with its 12.4x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

With earnings growth that's superior to most other companies of late, World Kinect has been doing relatively well. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings performance might be less impressive moving forward. 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.

How Is World Kinect's Growth Trending?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the market for P/E ratios like World Kinect's to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 28% gain to the company's bottom line. Pleasingly, EPS has also lifted 167% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been superb for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the five analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 17% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 15%, which is not materially different.

In light of this, it's peculiar that World Kinect's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It may be that most investors are not convinced the company can achieve future growth expectations.

The Final Word

It's argued the price-to-earnings ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

Our examination of World Kinect's analyst forecasts revealed that its market-matching earnings outlook isn't contributing to its P/E as much as we would have predicted. When we see an average earnings outlook with market-like growth, we assume potential risks are what might be placing pressure on the P/E ratio. It appears some are indeed anticipating earnings instability, because these conditions should normally provide more support to the share price.

Having said that, be aware World Kinect is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is potentially serious.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than World Kinect. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.