With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 8.5x Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) may be sending 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 33x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Marathon Oil has been struggling lately as its earnings have declined faster than most other companies. It seems that many are expecting the dismal earnings performance to persist, which has repressed the P/E. If you still like the company, you'd want its earnings trajectory to turn around before making any decisions. Or at the very least, you'd be hoping the earnings slide doesn't get any worse if your plan is to pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

Check out our latest analysis for Marathon Oil

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 48% decrease to the company's bottom line. At least EPS has managed not to go completely backwards from three years ago in aggregate, thanks to the earlier period of growth. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 3.0% per annum during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 12% per annum, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that Marathon Oil's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Bottom Line On Marathon Oil's P/E

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.

We've established that Marathon Oil maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider market, as expected. 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 Marathon Oil is showing 5 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is potentially serious.

If you're unsure about the strength of Marathon Oil's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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