There's No Escaping CSR Limited's (ASX:CSR) Muted Earnings

When close to half the companies in Australia have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 19x, you may consider CSR Limited (ASX:CSR) as an attractive investment with its 15.3x 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 that are retreating more than the market's of late, CSR has been very sluggish. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to improve at all. If you still like the company, you'd want its earnings trajectory to turn around before making any decisions. If not, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

See our latest analysis for CSR

Keen to find out how analysts think CSR's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

How Is CSR's Growth Trending?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, CSR would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the market.

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 4.1%. However, a few very strong years before that means that it was still able to grow EPS by an impressive 83% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, while they would have preferred to keep the run going, shareholders would probably welcome the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 4.5% each year during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. With the market predicted to deliver 17% growth each year, the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

With this information, we can see why CSR 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 Final Word

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 CSR'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.

Having said that, be aware CSR is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, you should know about.

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.

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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.