China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited's (HKG:144) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 7.5x 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 advantageous for China Merchants Port Holdings as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. 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 China Merchants Port Holdings

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on China Merchants Port Holdings.

How Is China Merchants Port Holdings' Growth Trending?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company managed to grow earnings per share by a handy 11% last year. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen an unpleasant 24% overall drop in EPS. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 1.6% per annum as estimated by the nine analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 13% each year, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that China Merchants Port Holdings' 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.

What We Can Learn From China Merchants Port Holdings' P/E?

While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

We've established that China Merchants Port Holdings 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.

You always need to take note of risks, for example - China Merchants Port Holdings has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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