DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE:DHX) shares have had a really impressive month, gaining 29% after a shaky period beforehand. Unfortunately, the gains of the last month did little to right the losses of the last year with the stock still down 35% over that time.

After such a large jump in price, given close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 16x, you may consider DHI Group as a stock to avoid entirely with its 34.7x 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.

DHI Group has been struggling lately as its earnings have declined faster than most other companies. It might be that many expect the dismal earnings performance to recover substantially, which has kept the P/E from collapsing. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

How Is DHI Group's Growth Trending?

DHI Group's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 15% decrease to the company's bottom line. This has erased any of its gains during the last three years, with practically no change in EPS being achieved in total. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing earnings over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with earnings decreasing 31% as estimated by the three analysts watching the company. With the market predicted to deliver 12% growth , that's a disappointing outcome.

With this information, we find it concerning that DHI Group is trading at a P/E higher than the market. It seems most investors are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects, but the analyst cohort is not so confident this will happen. 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.

What We Can Learn From DHI Group's P/E?

The strong share price surge has got DHI Group'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.

Our examination of DHI Group's analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking earnings isn't impacting its high P/E anywhere near as much as we would have predicted. Right now we are increasingly uncomfortable with the high P/E as the predicted future earnings are highly unlikely to support such positive sentiment for long. This places shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.

Having said that, be aware DHI Group is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is potentially serious.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on a low P/E.

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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.