When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 18x, you may consider MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG) as a highly attractive investment with its 8.3x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/E.

MGIC Investment 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. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to degrade substantially, possibly more than the market, which has repressed the P/E. 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?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far underperform the market for P/E ratios like MGIC Investment's to be considered reasonable.

If we review the last year of earnings, the company posted a result that saw barely any deviation from a year ago. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 67% overall rise in EPS, in spite of its uninspiring short-term performance. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been superb for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the six analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 3.4% per annum over the next three years. With the market predicted to deliver 10% growth per annum, the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

In light of this, it's understandable that MGIC Investment's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

What We Can Learn From MGIC Investment's P/E?

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.

We've established that MGIC Investment maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider market, 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. 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 2 warning signs for MGIC Investment (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable) you should be aware of.

If you're unsure about the strength of MGIC Investment'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.