Nongshim Co., Ltd.'s (KRX:004370) Price Is Out Of Tune With Earnings

With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 14.5x Nongshim Co., Ltd. (KRX:004370) may be sending bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Korea have P/E ratios under 12x and even P/E's lower than 6x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Nongshim could be doing better as its earnings have been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive earnings growth. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think this poor earnings performance will turn the corner. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

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Does Growth Match The High P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Nongshim would need to produce impressive growth in excess of the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 12% decrease to the company's bottom line. However, a few very strong years before that means that it was still able to grow EPS by an impressive 45% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a very good job of growing earnings over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 11% per annum as estimated by the analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 17% each year, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's alarming that Nongshim's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. Apparently many investors in the company are way more bullish than analysts indicate and aren't willing to let go of their stock at any price. There's a good chance these shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/E falls to levels more in line with the growth outlook.

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.

Our examination of Nongshim's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior earnings outlook isn't impacting its high P/E anywhere near as much as we would have predicted. Right now we are increasingly uncomfortable with the high P/E as the predicted future earnings aren't likely to support such positive sentiment for long. This places shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.

Many other vital risk factors can be found on the company's balance sheet. You can assess many of the main risks through our free balance sheet analysis for Nongshim with six simple checks.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Nongshim, 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. 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.