When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 19x, you may consider UFP Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPI) as an attractive investment with its 16.3x 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.

UFP Industries could be doing better as its earnings have been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive earnings growth. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for UFP Industries

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

Is There Any Growth For UFP Industries?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, UFP Industries 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 16%. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 4.4% overall. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with earnings decreasing 1.5% as estimated by the four analysts watching the company. That's not great when the rest of the market is expected to grow by 15%.

In light of this, it's understandable that UFP Industries' 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. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

The Final Word

Using the price-to-earnings ratio alone to determine if you should sell your stock isn't sensible, however it can be a practical guide to the company's future prospects.

We've established that UFP Industries 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 UFP Industries that you need to be mindful of.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on a low P/E.

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