GUOMAI Culture & Media Co., Ltd. (SZSE:301052) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 31% in the last month, although it is still struggling to make up recently lost ground. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 57%.

Following the firm bounce in price, given close to half the companies in China have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 30x, you may consider GUOMAI Culture & Media as a stock to avoid entirely with its 55.4x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E.

GUOMAI Culture & Media certainly has been doing a good job lately as its earnings growth has been positive while most other companies have been seeing their earnings go backwards. The P/E is probably high because investors think the company will continue to navigate the broader market headwinds better than most. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

Is There Enough Growth For GUOMAI Culture & Media?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, GUOMAI Culture & Media would need to produce outstanding growth well in excess of the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 31% gain to the company's bottom line. Despite this strong recent growth, it's still struggling to catch up as its three-year EPS frustratingly shrank by 2.6% 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 112% during the coming year according to the one analyst 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 GUOMAI Culture & Media 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 Key Takeaway

The strong share price surge has got GUOMAI Culture & Media's P/E rushing to great heights as well. 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 GUOMAI Culture & Media 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. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

You always need to take note of risks, for example - GUOMAI Culture & Media has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

If you're unsure about the strength of GUOMAI Culture & Media'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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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.