When close to half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 32x, you may consider UE Furniture Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603600) as a highly attractive investment with its 13.8x 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.

UE Furniture hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining earnings compare poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth on average. It seems that many are expecting the dour earnings performance to persist, which has repressed the P/E. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

How Is UE Furniture's Growth Trending?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far underperform the market for P/E ratios like UE Furniture's to be considered reasonable.

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 17%. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 1.5% overall. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the four analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 23% over the next year. With the market predicted to deliver 41% growth , the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

With this information, we can see why UE Furniture 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 UE Furniture's P/E?

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.

As we suspected, our examination of UE Furniture's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior earnings outlook is contributing to its low P/E. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/E as they concede future earnings probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 3 warning signs for UE Furniture that we have uncovered.

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.