When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 17x, you may consider USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NYSE:USNA) as an attractive investment with its 14.6x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/E.
USANA Health Sciences has been struggling lately as its earnings have declined faster than most other companies. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to improve at all. You'd much rather the company wasn't bleeding earnings if you still believe in the business. If not, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.
Keen to find out how analysts think USANA Health Sciences' future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.
Does Growth Match The Low P/E?
There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the market for P/E ratios like USANA Health Sciences' to be considered reasonable.
Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 5.1% decrease to the company's bottom line. This means it has also seen a slide in earnings over the longer-term as EPS is down 47% in total over the last three years. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.
Shifting to the future, estimates from the two analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 12% over the next year. With the market predicted to deliver 12% growth , that's a disappointing outcome.
With this information, we are not surprised that USANA Health Sciences is trading at a P/E lower than the market. However, shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.
The Final Word
We'd say the price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.
We've established that USANA Health Sciences maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast for sliding earnings, 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.
Having said that, be aware USANA Health Sciences is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is concerning.
If P/E ratios interest you, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content?Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. 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.
當將近一半的美國公司的市盈率(或 “市盈率”)高於17倍時,您可以將USANA Health Sciences, Inc.(紐約證券交易所代碼:USNA)的市盈率(或 “市盈率”)視爲具有14.6倍市盈率的有吸引力的投資。儘管如此,我們需要更深入地挖掘以確定降低市盈率是否有合理的基礎。
USANA Health Sciences最近一直處於困境,因爲其收益的下降速度快於大多數其他公司。市盈率可能很低,因爲投資者認爲這種糟糕的收益表現根本不會改善。如果你仍然相信公司的業務,你寧願公司不流失收益。如果不是,那麼現有股東可能很難對股價的未來走向感到興奮。
想了解分析師如何看待USANA Health Sciences的未來與該行業的對立嗎?在這種情況下,我們的免費報告是一個很好的起點。
增長與低市盈率相匹配嗎?
人們固有的假設是,如果像USANA Health Sciences這樣的市盈率才算合理,公司的表現應該低於市場。