Those holding China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute Co., Ltd. (SHSE:688128) shares would be relieved that the share price has rebounded 27% in the last thirty days, but it needs to keep going to repair the recent damage it has caused to investor portfolios. Not all shareholders will be feeling jubilant, since the share price is still down a very disappointing 16% in the last twelve months.

Even after such a large jump in price, given about half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 30x, you may still consider China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute as an attractive investment with its 18.5x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute 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.

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing 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 44% 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 26% during the coming year according to the one analyst following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 41%, which is noticeably more attractive.

With this information, we can see why China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute 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 Final Word

The latest share price surge wasn't enough to lift China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute's P/E close to the market median. 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.

We've established that China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider market, as expected. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/E as they concede future earnings probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute that you should be aware of.

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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