When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 19x, you may consider Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) as an attractive investment with its 16.2x 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.

Amkor Technology 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 you still 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 Amkor Technology

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Amkor Technology.

Is There Any Growth For Amkor Technology?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Amkor Technology would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the market.

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 10%. This means it has also seen a slide in earnings over the longer-term as EPS is down 35% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the ten analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 19% per year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 11% per year growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Amkor Technology's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It looks like most investors are not convinced at all that the company can achieve future growth expectations.

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.

We've established that Amkor Technology currently trades on a much lower than expected P/E since its forecast growth is higher than the wider market. There could be some major unobserved threats to earnings preventing the P/E ratio from matching the positive outlook. It appears many are indeed anticipating earnings instability, because these conditions should normally provide a boost to the share price.

The company's balance sheet is another key area for risk analysis. Our free balance sheet analysis for Amkor Technology with six simple checks will allow you to discover any risks that could be an issue.

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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