With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 6.1x Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) may be sending very bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios greater than 17x and even P/E's higher than 32x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so limited.

Group 1 Automotive certainly has been doing a good job lately as its earnings growth has been positive while most other companies have been seeing their earnings go backwards. It might be that many expect the strong earnings performance to degrade substantially, possibly more than the market, which has repressed the P/E. If not, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

See our latest analysis for Group 1 Automotive

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

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far underperform the market for P/E ratios like Group 1 Automotive's to be considered reasonable.

Taking a look back first, we see that there was hardly any earnings per share growth to speak of for the company over the past year. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 272% overall rise in EPS, in spite of its uninspiring short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the eight analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 6.1% per year over the next three years. That's not great when the rest of the market is expected to grow by 12% per year.

In light of this, it's understandable that Group 1 Automotive's P/E would sit below the majority of other companies. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/E has reached a floor yet with earnings going in reverse. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

The Bottom Line On Group 1 Automotive's P/E

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 Group 1 Automotive maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast for sliding earnings, as expected. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/E as they concede future earnings probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Group 1 Automotive that you should be aware of.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Group 1 Automotive. 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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