The Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.,Ltd. (SHSE:605388) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 27%. Instead of being rewarded, shareholders who have already held through the last twelve months are now sitting on a 36% share price drop.

Although its price has dipped substantially, given close to half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 29x, you may still consider Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd as a stock to avoid entirely with its 49.2x 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.

For example, consider that Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd's financial performance has been pretty ordinary lately as earnings growth is non-existent. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think the benign earnings growth will improve to outperform the broader market in the near future. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

View our latest analysis for Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd would need to produce outstanding growth well in excess of the market.

Taking a look back first, we see that there was hardly any earnings per share growth to speak of for the company over the past year. Whilst it's an improvement, it wasn't enough to get the company out of the hole it was in, with earnings down 65% overall from three years ago. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Comparing that to the market, which is predicted to deliver 42% growth in the next 12 months, the company's downward momentum based on recent medium-term earnings results is a sobering picture.

With this information, we find it concerning that Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd is trading at a P/E higher than the market. It seems most investors are ignoring the recent poor growth rate and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. There's a very good chance existing shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/E falls to levels more in line with the recent negative growth rates.

The Bottom Line On Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd's P/E

Even after such a strong price drop, Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd's P/E still exceeds the rest of the market significantly. Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

Our examination of Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd revealed its shrinking earnings over the medium-term aren't impacting its high P/E anywhere near as much as we would have predicted, given the market is set to grow. Right now we are increasingly uncomfortable with the high P/E as this earnings performance is highly unlikely to support such positive sentiment for long. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve markedly, it's very challenging to accept these prices as being reasonable.

Having said that, be aware Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 2 of those shouldn't be ignored.

If you're unsure about the strength of Juneyao Grand Healthy DrinksCo.Ltd's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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