Five Point Holdings, LLC (NYSE:FPH) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 28% gain in the last month alone. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 35%.

In spite of the firm bounce in price, given about half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 19x, you may still consider Five Point Holdings as a highly attractive investment with its 5.2x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/E.

Recent times have been quite advantageous for Five Point Holdings as its earnings have been rising very briskly. It might be that many expect the strong 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.

Does Growth Match The Low P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Five Point Holdings would need to produce anemic growth that's substantially trailing the market.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 106% last year. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow EPS by 839% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Weighing that recent medium-term earnings trajectory against the broader market's one-year forecast for expansion of 15% shows it's noticeably more attractive on an annualised basis.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Five Point Holdings' P/E sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently some shareholders believe the recent performance has exceeded its limits and have been accepting significantly lower selling prices.

The Key Takeaway

Shares in Five Point Holdings are going to need a lot more upward momentum to get the company's P/E out of its slump. While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

We've established that Five Point Holdings currently trades on a much lower than expected P/E since its recent three-year growth is higher than the wider market forecast. There could be some major unobserved threats to earnings preventing the P/E ratio from matching this positive performance. 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.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for Five Point Holdings that you should be aware of.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Five Point Holdings, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.