There's No Escaping Geodrill Limited's (TSE:GEO) Muted Earnings Despite A 27% Share Price Rise

Geodrill Limited (TSE:GEO) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 27% gain and recovering from prior weakness. Looking back a bit further, it's encouraging to see the stock is up 55% in the last year.

Even after such a large jump in price, given about half the companies in Canada have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 15x, you may still consider Geodrill as an attractive investment with its 11.7x 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.

This technology could replace computers: discover the 20 stocks are working to make quantum computing a reality.

With earnings growth that's exceedingly strong of late, Geodrill has been doing very well. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings growth might actually underperform the broader market in the near future. If that doesn't eventuate, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

View our latest analysis for Geodrill

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Geodrill, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.

How Is Geodrill's Growth Trending?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the market for P/E ratios like Geodrill's to be considered reasonable.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 136% last year. Still, incredibly EPS has fallen 37% in total from three years ago, which is quite disappointing. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the market is expected to grow by 20% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term earnings decline into perspective.

In light of this, it's understandable that Geodrill's P/E would sit below the majority of other companies. However, we think shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term, which could set up shareholders for future disappointment. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as recent earnings trends are already weighing down the shares.

The Key Takeaway

Despite Geodrill's shares building up a head of steam, its P/E still lags most other companies. While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

We've established that Geodrill maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its sliding earnings over the medium-term, as expected. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/E as they concede future earnings probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

A lot of potential risks can sit within a company's balance sheet. You can assess many of the main risks through our free balance sheet analysis for Geodrill with six simple checks.

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.