The StealthGas Inc. (NASDAQ:GASS) share price has done very well over the last month, posting an excellent gain of 40%. The annual gain comes to 172% following the latest surge, making investors sit up and take notice.

Although its price has surged higher, StealthGas may still be sending very bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 5.9x, since almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios greater than 18x and even P/E's higher than 32x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/E.

With its earnings growth in positive territory compared to the declining earnings of most other companies, StealthGas has been doing quite well of late. 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.

How Is StealthGas' Growth Trending?

StealthGas' 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 25% gain to the company's bottom line. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 461% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the lone analyst covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 1.3% over the next year. That's not great when the rest of the market is expected to grow by 13%.

With this information, we are not surprised that StealthGas is trading at a P/E lower than the market. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/E has reached a floor yet with earnings going in reverse. There's potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its profitability.

What We Can Learn From StealthGas' P/E?

Shares in StealthGas are going to need a lot more upward momentum to get the company's P/E out of its slump. While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

As we suspected, our examination of StealthGas' analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking earnings is contributing to its low P/E. 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.

Having said that, be aware StealthGas is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis, you should know about.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on StealthGas, 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.