With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 10.1x Neuren Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX:NEU) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Australia have P/E ratios greater than 18x and even P/E's higher than 32x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

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While the market has experienced earnings growth lately, Neuren Pharmaceuticals' earnings have gone into reverse gear, which is not great. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to get any better. If you still 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.

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

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

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 10% decrease to the company's bottom line. At least EPS has managed not to go completely backwards from three years ago in aggregate, thanks to the earlier period of growth. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the seven analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 21% per annum over the next three years. Meanwhile, the broader market is forecast to expand by 16% each year, which paints a poor picture.

In light of this, it's understandable that Neuren Pharmaceuticals' 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. 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 Neuren Pharmaceuticals' 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 Neuren Pharmaceuticals maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast for sliding earnings, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in earnings isn't great enough to justify a higher P/E ratio. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

A lot of potential risks can sit within a company's balance sheet. You can assess many of the main risks through our free balance sheet analysis for Neuren Pharmaceuticals with six simple checks.

If you're unsure about the strength of Neuren Pharmaceuticals' business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.