Those holding Quectel Wireless Solutions Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603236) shares would be relieved that the share price has rebounded 27% in the last thirty days, but it needs to keep going to repair the recent damage it has caused to investor portfolios. Still, the 30-day jump doesn't change the fact that longer term shareholders have seen their stock decimated by the 50% share price drop in the last twelve months.

After such a large jump in price, Quectel Wireless Solutions' price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 66.7x 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 30x and even P/E's below 18x are quite common. 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 haven't been advantageous for Quectel Wireless Solutions as its earnings have been falling quicker 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. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

Does Growth Match The High P/E?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the market for P/E ratios like Quectel Wireless Solutions' to be considered reasonable.

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. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 174% during the coming year according to the eight analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 41% growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why Quectel Wireless Solutions 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 Final Word

Quectel Wireless Solutions' P/E is flying high just like its stock has during the last month. 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 Quectel Wireless Solutions maintains its high P/E on the strength of its forecast growth being higher than the wider market, as expected. 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.

Before you settle on your opinion, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Quectel Wireless Solutions 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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