Zhejiang Weihua New Material Co., Ltd.'s (SHSE:603310) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 25x might 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 36x and even P/E's above 72x are quite common. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

For example, consider that Zhejiang Weihua New Material's financial performance has been poor lately as its earnings have been in decline. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think the company won't do enough to avoid underperforming the broader market in the near future. 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 Zhejiang Weihua New Material?

Zhejiang Weihua New Material'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.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 54% decrease to the company's bottom line. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 57% overall. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the market is expected to grow by 40% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term earnings decline into perspective.

With this information, we are not surprised that Zhejiang Weihua New Material is trading at a P/E lower than the market. However, we think shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term, which could set up shareholders for future disappointment. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as recent earnings trends are already weighing down the shares.

The Final Word

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 Zhejiang Weihua New Material maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its sliding earnings over the medium-term, 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. If recent medium-term earnings trends continue, it's hard to see the share price moving strongly in either direction in the near future under these circumstances.

You need to take note of risks, for example - Zhejiang Weihua New Material has 3 warning signs (and 1 which shouldn't be ignored) we think you should know about.

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.