Lingyi iTech (Guangdong) Company (SZSE:002600) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 27% in the last month, although it is still struggling to make up recently lost ground. While recent buyers may be laughing, long-term holders might not be as pleased since the recent gain only brings the stock back to where it started a year ago.

Even after such a large jump in price, Lingyi iTech (Guangdong)'s price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 17.5x 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 30x and even P/E's above 55x are quite common. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Lingyi iTech (Guangdong) 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.

Is There Any Growth For Lingyi iTech (Guangdong)?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the market for P/E ratios like Lingyi iTech (Guangdong)'s to be considered reasonable.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 107%. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow EPS by 77% 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.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should generate growth of 19% as estimated by the five analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 41% growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why Lingyi iTech (Guangdong) is trading at a P/E lower than the market. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on while the company is potentially eyeing a less prosperous future.

What We Can Learn From Lingyi iTech (Guangdong)'s P/E?

Lingyi iTech (Guangdong)'s stock might have been given a solid boost, but its P/E certainly hasn't reached any great heights. It's argued the price-to-earnings ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

We've established that Lingyi iTech (Guangdong) 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.

Plus, you should also learn about this 1 warning sign we've spotted with Lingyi iTech (Guangdong).

You might be able to find a better investment than Lingyi iTech (Guangdong). If you want a selection of possible candidates, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a low P/E (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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