With a median price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of close to 9x in Hong Kong, you could be forgiven for feeling indifferent about SINOPEC Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd.'s (HKG:2386) P/E ratio of 9x. Although, it's not wise to simply ignore the P/E without explanation as investors may be disregarding a distinct opportunity or a costly mistake.

Recent times have been advantageous for SINOPEC Engineering (Group) as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is moderate because investors think this strong earnings performance might be about to tail off. 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 not quite in favour.

Is There Some Growth For SINOPEC Engineering (Group)?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should be matching the market for P/E ratios like SINOPEC Engineering (Group)'s to be considered reasonable.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 4.3%. Still, lamentably EPS has fallen 4.7% in aggregate from three years ago, which is disappointing. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the seven analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 11% each year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be similar to the 12% each year growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why SINOPEC Engineering (Group) is trading at a fairly similar P/E to the market. Apparently shareholders are comfortable to simply hold on while the company is keeping a low profile.

The Key Takeaway

Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-earnings ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.

We've established that SINOPEC Engineering (Group) maintains its moderate P/E off the back of its forecast growth being in line with the wider market, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement or deterioration in earnings isn't great enough to justify a high or low P/E ratio. It's hard to see the share price moving strongly in either direction in the near future under these circumstances.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for SINOPEC Engineering (Group) (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on SINOPEC Engineering (Group), explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.