When close to half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 31x, you may consider Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical., Ltd (SHSE:600436) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 50.9x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

With its earnings growth in positive territory compared to the declining earnings of most other companies, Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical has been doing quite well of late. It seems that many are expecting the company to continue defying the broader market adversity, which has increased investors' willingness to pay up for the stock. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical.

Is There Enough Growth For Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical?

Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 12%. This was backed up an excellent period prior to see EPS up by 67% 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.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 25% during the coming year according to the eleven analysts following the company. With the market predicted to deliver 40% growth , the company is positioned for a weaker earnings result.

With this information, we find it concerning that Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical is trading at a P/E higher than the market. It seems most investors are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects, but the analyst cohort is not so confident this will happen. There's a good chance these shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/E falls to levels more in line with the growth outlook.

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.

We've established that Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical currently trades on a much higher than expected P/E since its forecast growth is lower than the wider market. Right now we are increasingly uncomfortable with the high P/E as the predicted future earnings aren't likely to support such positive sentiment for long. Unless these conditions improve markedly, it's very challenging to accept these prices as being reasonable.

Many other vital risk factors can be found on the company's balance sheet. You can assess many of the main risks through our free balance sheet analysis for Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical with six simple checks.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharmaceutical, 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.