When close to half the companies in Singapore have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 11x, you may consider Venture Corporation Limited (SGX:V03) as a stock to potentially avoid with its 14.3x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Venture hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining earnings compare poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth on average. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think this poor earnings performance will turn the corner. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

Is There Enough Growth For Venture?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as high as Venture's is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 24% decrease to the company's bottom line. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk EPS by 17% in aggregate. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 5.8% each year during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 11% each year growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we find it concerning that Venture 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. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as this level of earnings growth is likely to weigh heavily on the share price eventually.

What We Can Learn From Venture'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.

Our examination of Venture's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior earnings outlook isn't impacting its high P/E anywhere near as much as we would have predicted. When we see a weak earnings outlook with slower than market growth, we suspect the share price is at risk of declining, sending the high P/E lower. This places shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.

Before you settle on your opinion, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Venture that you should be aware of.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Venture, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.