When close to half the companies in Hong Kong have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 10x, you may consider Shenzhen Expressway Corporation Limited (HKG:548) as an attractive investment with its 6.3x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/E.

With earnings growth that's superior to most other companies of late, Shenzhen Expressway has been doing relatively well. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings performance might be less impressive moving forward. 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.

View our latest analysis for Shenzhen Expressway

Keen to find out how analysts think Shenzhen Expressway's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

Is There Any Growth For Shenzhen Expressway?

Shenzhen Expressway'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.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 3.2%. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen an unpleasant 29% overall drop in EPS. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the four analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 1.2% per annum over the next three years. With the market predicted to deliver 12% growth each year, that's a disappointing outcome.

With this information, we are not surprised that Shenzhen Expressway is trading at a P/E lower than the market. However, shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

The Key Takeaway

We'd say the price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

As we suspected, our examination of Shenzhen Expressway's analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking earnings is contributing to its low P/E. 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.

You need to take note of risks, for example - Shenzhen Expressway has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is significant) we think you should know about.

If P/E ratios interest you, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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