Yahoo Finance There's No Escaping Hibbett, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:HIBB) Muted Earnings Despite A 29% Share Price Rise
Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 29% gain in the last month alone. Taking a wider view, although not as strong as the last month, the full year gain of 12% is also fairly reasonable.
Although its price has surged higher, Hibbett's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 7.4x might still make it look like a strong buy right now compared to the market in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 17x and even P/E's above 33x are quite common. However, the P/E might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.
Recent times have been pleasing for Hibbett as its earnings have risen in spite of the market's earnings going into reverse. 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 you like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.
Check out our latest analysis for Hibbett
Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Hibbett will help you uncover what's on the horizon.
Does Growth Match The Low P/E?
Hibbett's 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.
If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 7.6%. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 179% overall rise in EPS, aided somewhat by its short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.
Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with earnings decreasing 0.9% as estimated by the seven analysts watching the company. That's not great when the rest of the market is expected to grow by 10%.
With this information, we are not surprised that Hibbett 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. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.
The Key Takeaway
Hibbett's recent share price jump still sees its P/E sitting firmly flat on the ground. We'd say the price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.
We've established that Hibbett maintains its low P/E on the weakness of its forecast for sliding earnings, as expected. 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.
You need to take note of risks, for example - Hibbett has 2 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.
Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Hibbett. 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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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.
