There Is A Reason Ooredoo Q.P.S.C.'s (DSM:ORDS) Price Is Undemanding

Ooredoo Q.P.S.C.'s (DSM:ORDS) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 11.3x might make it look like a buy right now compared to the market in Qatar, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 14x and even P/E's above 19x are quite common. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Recent times haven't been advantageous for Ooredoo Q.P.S.C as its earnings have been rising slower than most other companies. The P/E is probably low because investors think this lacklustre earnings performance isn't going to get any better. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for Ooredoo Q.P.S.C

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Ooredoo Q.P.S.C.

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered virtually the same number to the company's bottom line as the year before. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 53% overall rise in EPS, in spite of its uninspiring short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with earnings decreasing 1.8% as estimated by the seven analysts watching the company. With the market predicted to deliver 10% growth , that's a disappointing outcome.

With this information, we are not surprised that Ooredoo Q.P.S.C is trading at a P/E lower than the market. However, shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

The Key Takeaway

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 Ooredoo Q.P.S.C 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. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 1 warning sign for Ooredoo Q.P.S.C you should be aware of.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Ooredoo Q.P.S.C. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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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.