When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 18x, you may consider Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:HOV) as a highly attractive investment with its 5.2x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

For instance, Hovnanian Enterprises' receding earnings in recent times would have to be some food for thought. It might be that many expect the disappointing earnings performance to continue or accelerate, which has repressed the P/E. However, if this doesn't eventuate then existing shareholders may be feeling optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Is There Any Growth For Hovnanian Enterprises?

Hovnanian Enterprises' P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling earnings, and importantly, perform much worse than the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 1.4% decrease to the company's bottom line. Even so, admirably EPS has lifted 158% in aggregate from three years ago, notwithstanding the last 12 months. 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.

This is in contrast to the rest of the market, which is expected to grow by 11% over the next year, materially lower than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Hovnanian Enterprises' P/E sits below the majority of other companies. It looks like most investors are not convinced the company can maintain its recent growth rates.

The Final Word

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.

Our examination of Hovnanian Enterprises revealed its three-year earnings trends aren't contributing to its P/E anywhere near as much as we would have predicted, given they look better than current market expectations. When we see strong earnings with faster-than-market growth, we assume potential risks are what might be placing significant pressure on the P/E ratio. At least price risks look to be very low if recent medium-term earnings trends continue, but investors seem to think future earnings could see a lot of volatility.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Hovnanian Enterprises you should know about.

If P/E ratios interest you, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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