With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 29.2x Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) may be sending very bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios under 18x and even P/E's lower than 10x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.
Recent times haven't been advantageous for Conagra Brands as its earnings have been falling quicker than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think the company will turn things around completely and accelerate past most others in the market. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.
How Is Conagra Brands' Growth Trending?
The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as Conagra Brands' is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly.
If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 54%. This means it has also seen a slide in earnings over the longer-term as EPS is down 59% in total over the last three years. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.
Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 40% per year during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 10% per year growth forecast for the broader market.
In light of this, it's understandable that Conagra Brands' P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.
The Key Takeaway
Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.
As we suspected, our examination of Conagra Brands' analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. At this stage investors feel the potential for a deterioration in earnings isn't great enough to justify a lower P/E ratio. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.
It is also worth noting that we have found 5 warning signs for Conagra Brands that you need to take into consideration.
If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Conagra Brands, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.
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