Zhuhai Huajin Capital Co., Ltd. (SZSE:000532) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 27% gain and recovering from prior weakness. Notwithstanding the latest gain, the annual share price return of 5.8% isn't as impressive.

After such a large jump in price, Zhuhai Huajin Capital may be sending very bearish signals at the moment with a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 65.8x, since almost half of all companies in China have P/E ratios under 31x and even P/E's lower than 18x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E.

As an illustration, earnings have deteriorated at Zhuhai Huajin Capital over the last year, which is not ideal at all. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think the company will still do enough to outperform the broader market in the near future. If not, then existing shareholders may be quite nervous about the viability of the share price.

How Is Zhuhai Huajin Capital's Growth Trending?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, Zhuhai Huajin Capital would need to produce outstanding growth well in excess of the market.

Taking a look back first, the company's earnings per share growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 71%. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk EPS by 65% in aggregate. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Weighing that medium-term earnings trajectory against the broader market's one-year forecast for expansion of 40% shows it's an unpleasant look.

In light of this, it's alarming that Zhuhai Huajin Capital's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are ignoring the recent poor growth rate and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as a continuation of recent earnings trends is likely to weigh heavily on the share price eventually.

What We Can Learn From Zhuhai Huajin Capital's P/E?

The strong share price surge has got Zhuhai Huajin Capital's P/E rushing to great heights as well. 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 Zhuhai Huajin Capital currently trades on a much higher than expected P/E since its recent earnings have been in decline over the medium-term. Right now we are increasingly uncomfortable with the high P/E as this earnings performance is highly unlikely to support such positive sentiment for long. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve markedly, it's very challenging to accept these prices as being reasonable.

You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Zhuhai Huajin Capital you should be aware of, and 1 of them makes us a bit uncomfortable.

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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