Sunjin Co.,Ltd.'s (KRX:136490) Shares Bounce 37% But Its Business Still Trails The Market

Sunjin Co.,Ltd. (KRX:136490) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 37% gain in the last month alone. Looking back a bit further, it's encouraging to see the stock is up 51% in the last year.

Even after such a large jump in price, SunjinLtd's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 5.3x might still make it look like a strong buy right now compared to the market in Korea, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 13x and even P/E's above 28x are quite common. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/E.

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SunjinLtd certainly has been doing a great job lately as it's been growing earnings at a really rapid pace. 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 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.

See our latest analysis for SunjinLtd

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

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

SunjinLtd'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.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 217% last year. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow EPS by 73% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Weighing that recent medium-term earnings trajectory against the broader market's one-year forecast for expansion of 27% shows it's noticeably less attractive on an annualised basis.

With this information, we can see why SunjinLtd is trading at a P/E lower than the market. It seems most investors are expecting to see the recent limited growth rates continue into the future and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Key Takeaway

Shares in SunjinLtd are going to need a lot more upward momentum to get the company's P/E out of its slump. We'd say the price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

As we suspected, our examination of SunjinLtd revealed its three-year earnings trends are contributing to its low P/E, given they look worse than current market expectations. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in earnings isn't great enough to justify a higher P/E ratio. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

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

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on 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.