Not Many Are Piling Into Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) Stock Yet As It Plummets 25%

Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) shareholders that were waiting for something to happen have been dealt a blow with a 25% share price drop in the last month. For any long-term shareholders, the last month ends a year to forget by locking in a 58% share price decline.

Even after such a large drop in price, Travelzoo may still be sending bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 10.3x, since almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios greater than 19x and even P/E's higher than 33x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

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While the market has experienced earnings growth lately, Travelzoo's earnings have gone into reverse gear, which is not great. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor 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 Travelzoo

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Travelzoo.

Is There Any Growth For Travelzoo?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as low as Travelzoo's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the market.

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 34%. However, a few very strong years before that means that it was still able to grow EPS by an impressive 884% 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.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 41% per year during the coming three years according to the four analysts following the company. With the market only predicted to deliver 11% per year, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result.

With this information, we find it odd that Travelzoo is trading at a P/E lower than the market. It looks like most investors are not convinced at all that the company can achieve future growth expectations.

What We Can Learn From Travelzoo's P/E?

The softening of Travelzoo's shares means its P/E is now sitting at a pretty low level. 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 Travelzoo currently trades on a much lower than expected P/E since its forecast growth is higher than the wider market. When we see a strong earnings outlook with faster-than-market growth, we assume potential risks are what might be placing significant pressure on the P/E ratio. At least price risks look to be very low, but investors seem to think future earnings could see a lot of volatility.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 4 warning signs for Travelzoo that you should be aware of.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and 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.