When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 19x, you may consider Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) as an attractive investment with its 10.4x 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, Axcelis Technologies' 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 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.

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Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

Axcelis Technologies' P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than 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 3.9%. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 196% overall rise in EPS, in spite of its unsatisfying short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a very good job of growing earnings over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with earnings decreasing 24% as estimated by the seven analysts watching the company. With the market predicted to deliver 15% growth , that's a disappointing outcome.

In light of this, it's understandable that Axcelis Technologies' P/E would sit below the majority of other companies. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/E has reached a floor yet with earnings going in reverse. There's potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its profitability.

The Bottom Line On Axcelis Technologies' 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 Axcelis Technologies maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast for sliding earnings, as expected. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/E as they concede future earnings probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 1 warning sign for Axcelis Technologies that you need to be mindful of.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Axcelis Technologies, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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