When close to half the companies in Hong Kong have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 10x, you may consider China Everbright Environment Group Limited (HKG:257) as an attractive investment with its 5.8x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

While the market has experienced earnings growth lately, China Everbright Environment Group's earnings have gone into reverse gear, which is not great. 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.

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How Is China Everbright Environment Group's Growth Trending?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, China Everbright Environment Group would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the market.

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 10%. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 40% overall. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 3.4% each year during the coming three years according to the nine analysts following the company. With the market predicted to deliver 13% growth each year, the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

With this information, we can see why China Everbright Environment Group is trading at a P/E lower than the market. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

What We Can Learn From China Everbright Environment Group's P/E?

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.

We've established that China Everbright Environment Group 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. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for China Everbright Environment Group (of which 1 is a bit unpleasant!) 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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