Tasmea Limited (ASX:TEA) shares have had a horrible month, losing 27% after a relatively good period beforehand. Longer-term shareholders will rue the drop in the share price, since it's now virtually flat for the year after a promising few quarters.

Although its price has dipped substantially, Tasmea may still be sending bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 13.1x, since almost half of all companies in Australia have P/E ratios greater than 18x and even P/E's higher than 31x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

Recent times have been advantageous for Tasmea as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings performance might be less impressive moving forward. 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.

View our latest analysis for Tasmea

Keen to find out how analysts think Tasmea's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

Is There Any Growth For Tasmea?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 59% last year. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow EPS by 240% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 13% each year as estimated by the dual analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 15% per annum, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that Tasmea'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 Tasmea's P/E

Tasmea's P/E has taken a tumble along with its share price. 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 Tasmea 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.

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

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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