With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 78.1x Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (NYSE:MSGS) may be sending very bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios under 18x and even P/E's lower than 11x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E.

Recent times have been advantageous for Madison Square Garden Sports as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. It seems that many are expecting the strong earnings performance to persist, which has raised the P/E. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

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

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the market for P/E ratios like Madison Square Garden Sports' to be considered reasonable.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 56%. Although, its longer-term performance hasn't been as strong with three-year EPS growth being relatively non-existent overall. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing earnings over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the six analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth is heading into negative territory, declining 12% per annum over the next three years. With the market predicted to deliver 11% growth per annum, that's a disappointing outcome.

In light of this, it's alarming that Madison Square Garden Sports' P/E sits above the majority of other companies. Apparently many investors in the company reject the analyst cohort's pessimism and aren't willing to let go of their stock at any price. There's a very good chance these shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/E falls to levels more in line with the negative growth outlook.

The Final Word

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 Madison Square Garden Sports currently trades on a much higher than expected P/E for a company whose earnings are forecast to decline. When we see a poor outlook with earnings heading backwards, we suspect the share price is at risk of declining, sending the high P/E lower. Unless these conditions improve markedly, it's very challenging to accept these prices as being reasonable.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 3 warning signs for Madison Square Garden Sports (2 don't sit too well with us!) that we have uncovered.

If you're unsure about the strength of Madison Square Garden Sports' 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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