Fufeng Group Limited (HKG:546) shareholders have had their patience rewarded with a 28% share price jump in the last month. Taking a wider view, although not as strong as the last month, the full year gain of 23% is also fairly reasonable.

Although its price has surged higher, given close to half the companies in Hong Kong have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 10x, you may still consider Fufeng Group as an attractive investment with its 5.7x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

With earnings growth that's superior to most other companies of late, Fufeng Group 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 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.

View our latest analysis for Fufeng Group

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

Fufeng Group's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the market.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 103% last year. Still, incredibly EPS has fallen 30% in total from three years ago, which is quite disappointing. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the twin analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 2.9% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 18%, which is noticeably more attractive.

With this information, we can see why Fufeng 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.

The Key Takeaway

Despite Fufeng Group's shares building up a head of steam, its P/E still lags most other companies. 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 Fufeng Group maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider market, 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. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

It's always necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Fufeng Group, and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

You might be able to find a better investment than Fufeng Group. If you want a selection of possible candidates, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20x (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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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.