It’s not a stretch to say that China Resources Cement Holdings Limited’s (HKG:1313) price-to-earnings (or “P/E”) ratio of 9.2x right now seems quite “middle-of-the-road” compared to the market in Hong Kong, where the median P/E ratio is around 11x. While this might not raise any eyebrows, if the P/E ratio is not justified investors could be missing out on a potential opportunity or ignoring looming disappointment.
China Resources Cement Holdings certainly has been doing a good job lately as its earnings growth has been positive while most other companies have been seeing their earnings go backwards. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to deteriorate like the rest, which has kept the P/E from rising. 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 not quite in favour.
See our latest analysis for China Resources Cement Holdings
Does Growth Match The P/E?
China Resources Cement Holdings’ P/E ratio would be typical for a company that’s only expected to deliver moderate growth, and importantly, perform in line with the market.
Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 17% gain to the company’s bottom line. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 212% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.
Shifting to the future, estimates from the analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 0.4% per annum over the next three years. That’s shaping up to be materially lower than the 19% per year growth forecast for the broader market.
With this information, we find it interesting that China Resources Cement Holdings is trading at a fairly similar P/E to the market. Apparently many investors in the company are less bearish than analysts indicate and aren’t willing to let go of their stock right now. Maintaining these prices will be difficult to achieve as this level of earnings growth is likely to weigh down the shares eventually.
The Key Takeaway
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 China Resources Cement Holdings currently trades on a higher than expected P/E since its forecast growth is lower than the wider market. When we see a weak earnings outlook with slower than market growth, we suspect the share price is at risk of declining, sending the moderate P/E lower. Unless these conditions improve, it’s challenging to accept these prices as being reasonable.
There are also other vital risk factors to consider and we’ve discovered 2 warning signs for China Resources Cement Holdings (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.
If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on China Resources Cement Holdings, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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