When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 16x, you may consider U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. (NYSE:USPH) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 59.7x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so lofty.

While the market has experienced earnings growth lately, U.S. Physical Therapy's earnings have gone into reverse gear, which is not great. It might be that many expect the dour earnings performance to recover substantially, which has kept the P/E from collapsing. If not, then existing shareholders may be extremely nervous about the viability of the share price.

See our latest analysis for U.S. Physical Therapy

Is There Enough Growth For U.S. Physical Therapy?

U.S. Physical Therapy'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, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 42%. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk EPS by 33% in aggregate. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the six analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 59% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 10%, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this information, we can see why U.S. Physical Therapy is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.

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.

As we suspected, our examination of U.S. Physical Therapy's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Plus, you should also learn about these 4 warning signs we've spotted with U.S. Physical Therapy.

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.