The Shanxi Huaxiang Group Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603112) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 30%. Instead of being rewarded, shareholders who have already held through the last twelve months are now sitting on a 33% share price drop.

Following the heavy fall in price, given about half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 27x, you may consider Shanxi Huaxiang Group as a highly attractive investment with its 12.5x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

With earnings that are retreating more than the market's of late, Shanxi Huaxiang Group has been very sluggish. It seems that many are expecting the dismal earnings performance to persist, which has repressed the P/E. If you still like the company, you'd want its earnings trajectory to turn around before making any decisions. Or at the very least, you'd be hoping the earnings slide doesn't get any worse if your plan is to pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

Is There Any Growth For Shanxi Huaxiang Group?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Shanxi Huaxiang Group would need to produce anemic growth that's substantially trailing the market.

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 4.5%. Regardless, EPS has managed to lift by a handy 16% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the earlier period of growth. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a good job of growing earnings over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 46% during the coming year according to the sole analyst following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 41% growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Shanxi Huaxiang Group's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It looks like most investors are not convinced at all that the company can achieve future growth expectations.

What We Can Learn From Shanxi Huaxiang Group's P/E?

Shanxi Huaxiang Group's P/E looks about as weak as its stock price lately. Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

We've established that Shanxi Huaxiang Group 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. At least price risks look to be very low, but investors seem to think future earnings could see a lot of volatility.

You always need to take note of risks, for example - Shanxi Huaxiang Group has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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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.