When close to half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 35x, you may consider Anhui Gujing Distillery Co., Ltd. (SZSE:000596) as an attractive investment with its 28.6x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Anhui Gujing Distillery 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 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.

See our latest analysis for Anhui Gujing Distillery

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

Anhui Gujing Distillery'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.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 47% last year. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 118% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 19% each year during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 22% per year, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that Anhui Gujing Distillery's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on while the company is potentially eyeing a less prosperous future.

The Bottom Line On Anhui Gujing Distillery's P/E

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.

As we suspected, our examination of Anhui Gujing Distillery'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. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

It is also worth noting that we have found 2 warning signs for Anhui Gujing Distillery (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you need to take into consideration.

If you're unsure about the strength of Anhui Gujing Distillery's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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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.