The Sinofibers Technology Co.,Ltd. (SZSE:300777) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 25%. The recent drop completes a disastrous twelve months for shareholders, who are sitting on a 61% loss during that time.

In spite of the heavy fall in price, Sinofibers TechnologyLtd's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 18.8x might still make it look like a buy right now compared to the market in China, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 31x and even P/E's above 55x are quite common. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

With its earnings growth in positive territory compared to the declining earnings of most other companies, Sinofibers TechnologyLtd 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.

View our latest analysis for Sinofibers TechnologyLtd

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/E?

Sinofibers TechnologyLtd'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.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 33% gain to the company's bottom line. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow EPS by 141% in total over the last three years. 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 three analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 55% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 42%, which is noticeably less attractive.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Sinofibers TechnologyLtd's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently some shareholders are doubtful of the forecasts and have been accepting significantly lower selling prices.

What We Can Learn From Sinofibers TechnologyLtd's P/E?

Sinofibers TechnologyLtd's recently weak share price has pulled its P/E below most other companies. 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 Sinofibers TechnologyLtd currently trades on a much lower than expected P/E since its forecast growth is higher than the wider market. There could be some major unobserved threats to earnings preventing the P/E ratio from matching the positive outlook. It appears many are indeed anticipating earnings instability, because these conditions should normally provide a boost to the share price.

Plus, you should also learn about these 2 warning signs we've spotted with Sinofibers TechnologyLtd (including 1 which shouldn't be ignored).

If you're unsure about the strength of Sinofibers TechnologyLtd'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.