Safety Insurance Group, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:SAFT) Shares Not Telling The Full Story

When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 20x, you may consider Safety Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFT) as an attractive investment with its 12.9x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

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The earnings growth achieved at Safety Insurance Group over the last year would be more than acceptable for most companies. It might be that many expect the respectable earnings performance to degrade substantially, 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 Safety Insurance Group

We don't have analyst forecasts, but you can see how recent trends are setting up the company for the future by checking out our free report on Safety Insurance Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Is There Any Growth For Safety Insurance Group?

Safety Insurance 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.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 16% last year. Pleasingly, EPS has also lifted 56% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Comparing that to the market, which is predicted to deliver 16% growth in the next 12 months, the company's momentum is pretty similar based on recent medium-term annualised earnings results.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Safety Insurance Group's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently some shareholders are more bearish than recent times would indicate and have been accepting lower selling prices.

The Key Takeaway

Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-earnings ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.

Our examination of Safety Insurance Group revealed its three-year earnings trends aren't contributing to its P/E as much as we would have predicted, given they look similar to current market expectations. There could be some unobserved threats to earnings preventing the P/E ratio from matching the company's performance. At least the risk of a price drop looks to be subdued if recent medium-term earnings trends continue, but investors seem to think future earnings could see some volatility.

You always need to take note of risks, for example - Safety Insurance Group has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

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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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.