Roiserv Lifestyle Services Co., Ltd. (HKG:2146) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 27% gain in the last month alone. Longer-term shareholders would be thankful for the recovery in the share price since it’s now virtually flat for the year after the recent bounce.

Even after such a large jump in price, given about half the companies in Hong Kong have price-to-earnings ratios (or “P/E’s”) above 10x, you may still consider Roiserv Lifestyle Services as an attractive investment with its 5.7x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it’s justified.

As an illustration, earnings have deteriorated at Roiserv Lifestyle Services over the last year, which is not ideal at all. It might be that many expect the disappointing earnings performance to continue or accelerate, which has repressed the P/E. 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 Roiserv Lifestyle Services

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

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/E?

Roiserv Lifestyle Services’ P/E ratio would be typical for a company that’s only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company’s profits fell to the tune of 27%. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 75% overall. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Comparing that to the market, which is predicted to deliver 22% growth in the next 12 months, the company’s downward momentum based on recent medium-term earnings results is a sobering picture.

With this information, we are not surprised that Roiserv Lifestyle Services is trading at a P/E lower than the market. However, we think shrinking earnings are unlikely to lead to a stable P/E over the longer term, which could set up shareholders for future disappointment. There’s potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn’t improve its profitability.

The Key Takeaway

Despite Roiserv Lifestyle Services’ shares building up a head of steam, its P/E still lags most other companies. 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.

As we suspected, our examination of Roiserv Lifestyle Services revealed its shrinking earnings over the medium-term are contributing to its low P/E, given the market is set to grow. 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.

We don’t want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 2 warning signs for Roiserv Lifestyle Services (1 is concerning!) that you need to be mindful 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.