With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 4.5x COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. (HKG:1919) may be sending very 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 19x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

With earnings growth that's superior to most other companies of late, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has been doing relatively well. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to degrade substantially, which has repressed the P/E. If not, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

View our latest analysis for COSCO SHIPPING Holdings

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How Is COSCO SHIPPING Holdings' Growth Trending?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as depressed as COSCO SHIPPING Holdings' is when the company's growth is on track to lag the market decidedly.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 16% last year. Despite this strong recent growth, it's still struggling to catch up as its three-year EPS frustratingly shrank by 46% overall. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the ten analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 19% over the next year. That's not great when the rest of the market is expected to grow by 23%.

With this information, we are not surprised that COSCO SHIPPING Holdings is trading at a P/E lower than the market. 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.

The Final Word

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 COSCO SHIPPING Holdings' analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking earnings is contributing to its low P/E. 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.

Plus, you should also learn about these 2 warning signs we've spotted with COSCO SHIPPING Holdings (including 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable).

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

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