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Goodfellow Inc.'s (TSE:GDL) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 12.5x might make it look like a buy right now compared to the market in Canada, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 15x and even P/E's above 38x are quite common. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.
With earnings growth that's exceedingly strong of late, Goodfellow has been doing very well. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to degrade substantially, 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.
Check out our latest analysis for Goodfellow
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How Is Goodfellow's Growth Trending?
The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as low as Goodfellow's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the market.
Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 63% last year. Still, EPS has barely risen at all from three years ago in total, which is not ideal. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.
Comparing that to the market, which is predicted to deliver 1.7% growth in the next 12 months, the company's momentum is pretty similar based on recent medium-term annualised earnings results.
In light of this, it's peculiar that Goodfellow's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It may be that most investors are not convinced the company can maintain recent growth rates.
The Bottom Line On Goodfellow's P/E
While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.
Our examination of Goodfellow revealed its three-year earnings trends aren't contributing to its P/E as much as we would have predicted, given they look similar to current market expectations. When we see average earnings with market-like growth, we assume potential risks are what might be placing pressure on the P/E ratio. At least the risk of a price drop looks to be subdued if recent medium-term earnings trends continue, but investors seem to think future earnings could see some volatility.