With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 40.8x Pulike Biological Engineering, Inc. (SHSE:603566) may be sending bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in China have P/E ratios under 34x and even P/E's lower than 19x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the elevated P/E.

With earnings that are retreating more than the market's of late, Pulike Biological Engineering has been very sluggish. 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.

How Is Pulike Biological Engineering's Growth Trending?

Pulike Biological Engineering's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver solid growth, and importantly, perform better than the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 54% decrease to the company's bottom line. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 68% overall. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the seven analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 133% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 38%, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this information, we can see why Pulike Biological Engineering is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

The Final Word

While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

We've established that Pulike Biological Engineering 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.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Pulike Biological Engineering you should know about.

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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