With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 9.5x China National Accord Medicines Corporation Ltd. (SZSE:000028) may be sending very bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in China have P/E ratios greater than 32x and even P/E's higher than 58x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so limited.

China National Accord Medicines 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. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think the company's earnings are going to fall away like everyone else's soon. If not, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for China National Accord Medicines

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

China National Accord Medicines' P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling earnings, and importantly, perform much worse than the market.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 25% last year. EPS has also lifted 25% in aggregate from three years ago, mostly thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been respectable for the company.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 9.5% during the coming year according to the five analysts following the company. With the market predicted to deliver 43% growth , the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

With this information, we can see why China National Accord Medicines is trading at a P/E lower than the market. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on while the company is potentially eyeing a less prosperous future.

What We Can Learn From China National Accord Medicines' P/E?

Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

We've established that China National Accord Medicines 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. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 1 warning sign for China National Accord Medicines that we have uncovered.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than China National Accord Medicines. 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.