Binjiang Service Group Co. Ltd. (HKG:3316) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 25% gain and recovering from prior weakness. Unfortunately, despite the strong performance over the last month, the full year gain of 8.2% isn't as attractive.

After such a large jump in price, Binjiang Service Group's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 16.5x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in Hong Kong, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 8x and even P/E's below 5x are quite common. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Recent times have been advantageous for Binjiang Service Group as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. It seems that many are expecting the strong earnings performance to persist, which has raised the P/E. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

Check out our latest analysis for Binjiang Service Group

How Is Binjiang Service Group's Growth Trending?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as Binjiang Service Group's is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 47% last year. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 232% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 36% each year as estimated by the sole analyst watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 15% per annum growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why Binjiang Service Group is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

What We Can Learn From Binjiang Service Group's P/E?

Shares in Binjiang Service Group have built up some good momentum lately, which has really inflated its P/E. 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.

We've established that Binjiang Service Group maintains its high P/E on the strength of its forecast growth being higher than the wider market, as expected. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

Before you settle on your opinion, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Binjiang Service Group that you should be aware of.

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.

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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.