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Benign Growth For Ava Risk Group Limited (ASX:AVA) Underpins Its Share Price

With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 8.4x Ava Risk Group Limited (ASX:AVA) may be sending very bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Australia have P/E ratios greater than 20x and even P/E's higher than 40x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/E.

Ava Risk Group certainly has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing earnings more than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings performance might be less impressive moving forward. If not, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

View our latest analysis for Ava Risk Group

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If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Ava Risk Group.

How Is Ava Risk Group's Growth Trending?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as depressed as Ava Risk Group's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the market decidedly.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 171% last year. Although, its longer-term performance hasn't been as strong with three-year EPS growth being relatively non-existent overall. Therefore, it's fair to say that earnings growth has been inconsistent recently for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the one analyst covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 46% over the next year. That's not great when the rest of the market is expected to grow by 16%.

With this information, we are not surprised that Ava Risk Group is trading at a P/E lower than the market. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/E has reached a floor yet with earnings going in reverse. There's potential for the P/E to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its profitability.

The Final Word

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 Ava Risk Group's analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking earnings is contributing to its low P/E. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in earnings isn't great enough to justify a higher P/E ratio. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Ava Risk Group (of which 1 is concerning!) you should know about.

If P/E ratios interest you, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly and trade on P/E's below 20x.

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.

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