With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 14.2x Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios greater than 19x and even P/E's higher than 35x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

Recent times have been pleasing for Janus Henderson Group as its earnings have risen in spite of the market's earnings going into reverse. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to degrade substantially, possibly more than the market, 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.

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Janus Henderson Group.

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

Janus Henderson 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.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 38% gain to the company's bottom line. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen a very unpleasant 13% drop in EPS in aggregate. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the eight analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 6.9% each year over the next three years. With the market predicted to deliver 10% growth per annum, the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

In light of this, it's understandable that Janus Henderson Group's 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.

The Bottom Line On Janus Henderson Group's 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.

As we suspected, our examination of Janus Henderson Group's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior earnings outlook is contributing to its low P/E. 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.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 2 warning signs for Janus Henderson Group that we have uncovered.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Janus Henderson Group. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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