Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300653) shareholders that were waiting for something to happen have been dealt a blow with a 29% share price drop in the last month. For any long-term shareholders, the last month ends a year to forget by locking in a 57% share price decline.

Although its price has dipped substantially, Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 20.9x might still make it look like a buy right now compared to the market in China, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 30x and even P/E's above 54x are quite common. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology 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 Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology

How Is Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology's Growth Trending?

Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 12%. This was backed up an excellent period prior to see EPS up by 46% in total over the last three years. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been superb for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the dual analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 1.0% over the next year. Meanwhile, the broader market is forecast to expand by 42%, which paints a poor picture.

In light of this, it's understandable that Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology's P/E would sit below the majority of other companies. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/E has reached a floor yet with earnings going in reverse. There's potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its profitability.

The Bottom Line On Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology's P/E

The softening of Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology's shares means its P/E is now sitting at a pretty low level. 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.

As we suspected, our examination of Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology's analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking earnings is contributing to its low P/E. 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.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology that you should be aware of.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Yantai Zhenghai Biotechnology. 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.