With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 4.4x Pacific Basin Shipping Limited (HKG:2343) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Hong Kong have P/E ratios greater than 9x and even P/E's higher than 18x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be 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, Pacific Basin Shipping has been very sluggish. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to improve at all. 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.

How Is Pacific Basin Shipping's Growth Trending?

Pacific Basin Shipping'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.

Taking a look back first, the company's earnings per share growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 74%. This has erased any of its gains during the last three years, with practically no change in EPS being achieved in total. Therefore, it's fair to say that earnings growth has been inconsistent recently for the company.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to slump, contracting by 12% each year during the coming three years according to the eight analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the broader market is forecast to expand by 16% per year, which paints a poor picture.

In light of this, it's understandable that Pacific Basin Shipping's P/E would sit below the majority of other companies. However, shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term. There's potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its profitability.

The Bottom Line On Pacific Basin Shipping's P/E

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 Pacific Basin Shipping maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast for sliding earnings, 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. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

Having said that, be aware Pacific Basin Shipping is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those can't be ignored.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Pacific Basin Shipping, 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.