When close to half the companies in Hong Kong have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 11x, you may consider Grand Pharmaceutical Group Limited (HKG:512) as an attractive investment with its 7x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/E.

Recent earnings growth for Grand Pharmaceutical Group has been in line with the market. It might be that many expect the mediocre earnings performance to degrade, which has repressed the P/E. If you like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

View our latest analysis for Grand Pharmaceutical Group

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

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Grand Pharmaceutical Group would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the market.

Taking a look back first, we see that there was hardly any earnings per share growth to speak of for the company over the past year. Still, the latest three year period was better as it's delivered a decent 6.7% overall rise in EPS. Therefore, it's fair to say that earnings growth has been inconsistent recently for the company.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 1.0% each year during the coming three years according to the four analysts following the company. With the market predicted to deliver 12% growth per annum, the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

With this information, we can see why Grand Pharmaceutical Group is trading at a P/E lower than the market. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

What We Can Learn From Grand Pharmaceutical Group'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.

We've established that Grand Pharmaceutical Group 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. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

Many other vital risk factors can be found on the company's balance sheet. You can assess many of the main risks through our free balance sheet analysis for Grand Pharmaceutical Group with six simple checks.

If P/E ratios interest you, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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