When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 18x, you may consider H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) as an attractive investment with its 13.1x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

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H&R Block hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining earnings compare poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth on average. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to get any better. 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 H&R Block

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on H&R Block.

Is There Any Growth For H&R Block?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the market for P/E ratios like H&R Block's to be considered reasonable.

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 4.0%. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 34% overall rise in EPS, in spite of its unsatisfying short-term performance. Although it's been a bumpy ride, it's still fair to say the earnings growth recently has been more than adequate for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the three analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 27% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 14%, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this information, we find it odd that H&R Block is trading at a P/E lower than the market. Apparently some shareholders are doubtful of the forecasts and have been accepting significantly lower selling prices.

The Bottom Line On H&R Block's P/E

While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

We've established that H&R Block 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. At least price risks look to be very low, but investors seem to think future earnings could see a lot of volatility.

We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 2 warning signs for H&R Block (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you need to be mindful of.

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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