When close to half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 33x, you may consider Quectel Wireless Solutions Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603236) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 68.6x 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.

Quectel Wireless Solutions has been struggling lately as its earnings have declined faster than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think the company will turn things around completely and accelerate past most others in the market. If not, then existing shareholders may be very nervous about the viability of the share price.

View our latest analysis for Quectel Wireless Solutions

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

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as Quectel Wireless Solutions' is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 69% decrease to the company's bottom line. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 21% overall. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the eight analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 188% over the next year. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 43% growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's understandable that Quectel Wireless Solutions' 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.

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 Quectel Wireless Solutions 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.

Before you settle on your opinion, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Quectel Wireless Solutions that you should be aware of.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Quectel Wireless Solutions, 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.