AIMA Technology Group CO., LTD (SHSE:603529) shareholders have had their patience rewarded with a 28% share price jump in the last month. While recent buyers may be laughing, long-term holders might not be as pleased since the recent gain only brings the stock back to where it started a year ago.

In spite of the firm bounce in price, given about half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 33x, you may still consider AIMA Technology Group as an attractive investment with its 17x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

AIMA Technology Group could be doing better as its earnings have been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive earnings growth. It seems that many are expecting the dour earnings performance to persist, which has repressed the P/E. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

AIMA Technology Group's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 6.8% decrease to the company's bottom line. However, a few very strong years before that means that it was still able to grow EPS by an impressive 149% 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.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 17% each year as estimated by the nine analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 25% per annum growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why AIMA Technology Group is trading at a P/E lower than the market. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

What We Can Learn From AIMA Technology Group's P/E?

The latest share price surge wasn't enough to lift AIMA Technology Group's P/E close to the market median. It's argued the price-to-earnings ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

As we suspected, our examination of AIMA Technology Group's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior earnings outlook is contributing to its low P/E. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/E as they concede future earnings probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Having said that, be aware AIMA Technology Group is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis, you should know about.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on AIMA Technology Group, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.