Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300977) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 35% in the last month, although it is still struggling to make up recently lost ground. Not all shareholders will be feeling jubilant, since the share price is still down a very disappointing 11% in the last twelve months.

Since its price has surged higher, Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 49x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in China, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 29x and even P/E's below 18x are quite common. 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.

With its earnings growth in positive territory compared to the declining earnings of most other companies, Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting 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. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

How Is Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting's Growth Trending?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the market for P/E ratios like Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting's to be considered reasonable.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 16%. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen a very unpleasant 71% drop in EPS in aggregate. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 122% during the coming year according to the dual analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 41% growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's understandable that Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

What We Can Learn From Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting's P/E?

The strong share price surge has got Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting's P/E rushing to great heights as well. 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.

We've established that Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting maintains its high P/E on the strength of its forecast growth being higher than the wider market, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for a deterioration in earnings isn't great enough to justify a lower P/E ratio. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for Shenzhen Ridge Engineering Consulting that you should be aware of.

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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