When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 16x, you may consider Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 33.5x 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.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding 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. It seems that many are expecting the company to continue defying the broader market adversity, which has increased investors' willingness to pay up for the stock. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

How Is Booz Allen Hamilton Holding's Growth Trending?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the market for P/E ratios like Booz Allen Hamilton Holding's to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 126% gain to the company's bottom line. As a result, it also grew EPS by 5.6% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has actually done a good job of growing earnings over that time.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 15% each year during the coming three years according to the twelve analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 10% each year, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this information, we can see why Booz Allen Hamilton Holding 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.

What We Can Learn From Booz Allen Hamilton Holding's P/E?

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 Booz Allen Hamilton Holding 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 1 warning sign for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding 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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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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com