With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 5.6x China Overseas Land & Investment Limited (HKG:688) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Hong Kong have P/E ratios greater than 10x and even P/E's higher than 20x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Recent times have been advantageous for China Overseas Land & Investment as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to degrade substantially, which has repressed the P/E. 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 China Overseas Land & Investment

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Is There Any Growth For China Overseas Land & Investment?

China Overseas Land & Investment's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 12%. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen an unpleasant 49% overall drop in EPS. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 8.0% per year as estimated by the analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 13% per annum, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that China Overseas Land & Investment's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on while the company is potentially eyeing a less prosperous future.

The Bottom Line On China Overseas Land & Investment's P/E

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 China Overseas Land & Investment maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider market, 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.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 1 warning sign for China Overseas Land & Investment that we have uncovered.

You might be able to find a better investment than China Overseas Land & Investment. If you want a selection of possible candidates, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a low P/E (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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