Neusoft Education Technology Co. Limited (HKG:9616) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 27% gain and recovering from prior weakness. While recent buyers may be laughing, long-term holders might not be as pleased since the recent gain only brings the stock back to where it started a year ago.

Although its price has surged higher, Neusoft Education Technology may still be sending very bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 4.3x, since almost half of all companies in Hong Kong have P/E ratios greater than 9x and even P/E's higher than 19x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

With its earnings growth in positive territory compared to the declining earnings of most other companies, Neusoft Education Technology has been doing quite well of late. 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 not, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Is There Any Growth For Neusoft Education Technology?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company managed to grow earnings per share by a handy 7.7% last year. This was backed up an excellent period prior to see EPS up by 134% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 9.7% per annum during the coming three years according to the two analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 16% per year, which is noticeably more attractive.

With this information, we can see why Neusoft Education Technology is trading at a P/E lower than the market. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Bottom Line On Neusoft Education Technology's P/E

Shares in Neusoft Education Technology are going to need a lot more upward momentum to get the company's P/E out of its slump. 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 Neusoft Education Technology's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior earnings outlook 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.

Plus, you should also learn about these 2 warning signs we've spotted with Neusoft Education Technology.

If P/E ratios interest you, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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