Easyhome New Retail Group Corporation Limited's (SZSE:000785) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 12.8x might make it look like a strong 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 57x are quite common. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/E.

Easyhome New Retail Group could be doing better as its earnings have been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive earnings growth. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to get any better. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 21% decrease to the company's bottom line. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 30% overall. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the eight analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 10.0% per year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 25% per year growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why Easyhome New Retail Group 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 Easyhome New Retail Group'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.

We've established that Easyhome New Retail Group maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider market, as expected. 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.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Easyhome New Retail Group you should know about.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Easyhome New Retail Group. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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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.

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