Despite an already strong run, L&K Engineering (Suzhou) Co.,Ltd. (SHSE:603929) shares have been powering on, with a gain of 36% in the last thirty days. Looking back a bit further, it's encouraging to see the stock is up 67% in the last year.

Although its price has surged higher, given about half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 32x, you may still consider L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd as a highly attractive investment with its 15.8x 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 so limited.

L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd certainly has been doing a great job lately as it's been growing earnings at a really rapid pace. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings growth might actually underperform the broader market in the near future. 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.

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/E?

L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd's 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.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 99% gain to the company's bottom line. Still, EPS has barely risen at all from three years ago in total, which is not ideal. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing earnings over that time.

Weighing that recent medium-term earnings trajectory against the broader market's one-year forecast for expansion of 38% shows it's noticeably less attractive on an annualised basis.

With this information, we can see why L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd is trading at a P/E lower than the market. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on to something they believe will continue to trail the bourse.

The Bottom Line On L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd's P/E

L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd's recent share price jump still sees its P/E sitting firmly flat on the ground. 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 L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its recent three-year growth being lower than the wider market forecast, 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. If recent medium-term earnings trends continue, it's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Having said that, be aware L&K Engineering (Suzhou)Ltd is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis, you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on a low P/E.

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