The Shoe Carnival, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCVL) share price has done very well over the last month, posting an excellent gain of 25%. Taking a wider view, although not as strong as the last month, the full year gain of 19% is also fairly reasonable.

Although its price has surged higher, given about half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 17x, you may still consider Shoe Carnival as an attractive investment with its 9.9x 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 limited.

Shoe Carnival hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining earnings compare poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth on average. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to get any better. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

See our latest analysis for Shoe Carnival

How Is Shoe Carnival's Growth Trending?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Shoe Carnival would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the market.

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 26%. Even so, admirably EPS has lifted 584% in aggregate from three years ago, notwithstanding the last 12 months. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a very good job of growing earnings over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the dual analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 2.7% over the next year. With the market predicted to deliver 10% growth , the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

With this information, we can see why Shoe Carnival is trading at a P/E lower than the market. 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 Shoe Carnival's P/E?

The latest share price surge wasn't enough to lift Shoe Carnival's P/E close to the market median. 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 Shoe Carnival 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.

A lot of potential risks can sit within a company's balance sheet. Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis for Shoe Carnival with six simple checks on some of these key factors.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Shoe Carnival. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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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.