Xiangxing International Holding Limited's (HKG:1732) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 6.1x might make it look like a buy right now compared to the market in Hong Kong, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 10x and even P/E's above 20x are quite common. 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 quite advantageous for Xiangxing International Holding as its earnings have been rising very briskly. 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.

See our latest analysis for Xiangxing International Holding

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Xiangxing International Holding, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Xiangxing International Holding would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the market.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 245% last year. Still, incredibly EPS has fallen 37% in total from three years ago, which is quite disappointing. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Weighing that medium-term earnings trajectory against the broader market's one-year forecast for expansion of 23% shows it's an unpleasant look.

In light of this, it's understandable that Xiangxing International Holding's P/E would sit below the majority of other companies. However, we think shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term, which could set up shareholders for future disappointment. There's potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its profitability.

What We Can Learn From Xiangxing International Holding's P/E?

Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-earnings ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.

As we suspected, our examination of Xiangxing International Holding 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.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Xiangxing International Holding (2 can't be ignored) you should be aware of.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Xiangxing International Holding. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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