A Rising Share Price Has Us Looking Closely At Shanshan Brand Management Co., Ltd.'s (HKG:1749) P/E Ratio

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Shanshan Brand Management (HKG:1749) shares have had a really impressive month, gaining 42%, after some slippage. But shareholders may not all be feeling jubilant, since the share price is still down 10% in the last year.

Assuming no other changes, a sharply higher share price makes a stock less attractive to potential buyers. In the long term, share prices tend to follow earnings per share, but in the short term prices bounce around in response to short term factors (which are not always obvious). So some would prefer to hold off buying when there is a lot of optimism towards a stock. Perhaps the simplest way to get a read on investors' expectations of a business is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). A high P/E implies that investors have high expectations of what a company can achieve compared to a company with a low P/E ratio.

Check out our latest analysis for Shanshan Brand Management

Does Shanshan Brand Management Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry?

Shanshan Brand Management's P/E of 4.30 indicates relatively low sentiment towards the stock. If you look at the image below, you can see Shanshan Brand Management has a lower P/E than the average (8.9) in the luxury industry classification.

SEHK:1749 Price Estimation Relative to Market, December 11th 2019
SEHK:1749 Price Estimation Relative to Market, December 11th 2019

This suggests that market participants think Shanshan Brand Management will underperform other companies in its industry. While current expectations are low, the stock could be undervalued if the situation is better than the market assumes. It is arguably worth checking if insiders are buying shares, because that might imply they believe the stock is undervalued.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

If earnings fall then in the future the 'E' will be lower. That means unless the share price falls, the P/E will increase in a few years. Then, a higher P/E might scare off shareholders, pushing the share price down.

Shanshan Brand Management saw earnings per share decrease by 35% last year. And it has shrunk its earnings per share by 13% per year over the last five years. This might lead to muted expectations.

Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet

It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Theoretically, a business can improve its earnings (and produce a lower P/E in the future) by investing in growth. That means taking on debt (or spending its cash).

While growth expenditure doesn't always pay off, the point is that it is a good option to have; but one that the P/E ratio ignores.