Hankook & Company Co., Ltd.'s (KRX:000240) Shares Lagging The Market But So Is The Business

With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 4.9x Hankook & Company Co., Ltd. (KRX:000240) may be sending very bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Korea have P/E ratios greater than 12x and even P/E's higher than 23x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Recent times have been advantageous for Hankook as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings performance might be less impressive moving forward. 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 out of favour.

View our latest analysis for Hankook

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

Is There Any Growth For Hankook?

Hankook's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling earnings, and importantly, perform much worse than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 268%. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 57% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 12% each year as estimated by the sole analyst watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 15% per annum, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that Hankook's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Key Takeaway

It's argued the price-to-earnings ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

As we suspected, our examination of Hankook'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. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Hankook 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.