With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 2.5x Sinostar PEC Holdings Limited (SGX:C9Q) may be sending very bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Singapore have P/E ratios greater than 12x and even P/E's higher than 21x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/E.

As an illustration, earnings have deteriorated at Sinostar PEC Holdings over the last year, which is not ideal at all. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think the company won't do enough to avoid underperforming the broader market in the near future. If you 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 Sinostar PEC Holdings

SGX:C9Q Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry January 14th 2025

Want the full picture on earnings, revenue and cash flow for the company? Then our free report on Sinostar PEC Holdings will help you shine a light on its historical performance.

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/E?

Sinostar PEC Holdings' P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling earnings, and importantly, perform much 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 18%. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 45% overall. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Weighing that medium-term earnings trajectory against the broader market's one-year forecast for expansion of 8.0% shows it's an unpleasant look.

In light of this, it's understandable that Sinostar PEC Holdings' 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 recent earnings trends are already weighing down the shares.

What We Can Learn From Sinostar PEC Holdings' P/E?

Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

As we suspected, our examination of Sinostar PEC Holdings revealed its shrinking earnings over the medium-term are contributing to its low P/E, given the market is set to grow. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in earnings isn't great enough to justify a higher P/E ratio. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

It is also worth noting that we have found 2 warning signs for Sinostar PEC Holdings that you need to take into consideration.

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