There's No Escaping Stanmore Resources Limited's (ASX:SMR) Muted Earnings

When close to half the companies in Australia have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 21x, you may consider Stanmore Resources Limited (ASX:SMR) as a highly attractive investment with its 6.6x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

While the market has experienced earnings growth lately, Stanmore Resources' earnings have gone into reverse gear, which is not great. It seems that many are expecting the dour earnings performance to persist, which has repressed the P/E. If you still like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

Check out our latest analysis for Stanmore Resources

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

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Stanmore Resources would need to produce anemic growth that's substantially trailing the market.

Taking a look back first, the company's earnings per share growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 66%. Unfortunately, that's brought it right back to where it started three years ago with EPS growth being virtually non-existent overall during that time. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should bring diminished returns, with earnings decreasing 17% per year as estimated by the four analysts watching the company. With the market predicted to deliver 19% growth each year, that's a disappointing outcome.

In light of this, it's understandable that Stanmore Resources' P/E would sit below the majority of other companies. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/E has reached a floor yet with earnings going in reverse. There's potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its profitability.

The Final Word

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.

We've established that Stanmore Resources 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.

Before you settle on your opinion, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Stanmore Resources (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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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.