With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 24.2x Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW) may be sending bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios under 16x and even P/E's lower than 9x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's as high as it is.
With its earnings growth in positive territory compared to the declining earnings of most other companies, Curtiss-Wright has been doing quite well of late. The P/E is probably high because investors think the company will continue to navigate the broader market headwinds better than most. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.
View our latest analysis for Curtiss-Wright
NYSE:CW Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry December 21st 2023 If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Curtiss-Wright.
Is There Enough Growth For Curtiss-Wright?
Curtiss-Wright'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 an exceptional 32% gain to the company's bottom line. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 60% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.
Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 12% per year during the coming three years according to the six analysts following the company. With the market predicted to deliver 12% growth per annum, the company is positioned for a comparable earnings result.
In light of this, it's curious that Curtiss-Wright's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are ignoring the fairly average growth expectations and are willing to pay up for exposure to the stock. These shareholders may be setting themselves up for disappointment if the P/E falls to levels more in line with the growth outlook.
The Bottom Line On Curtiss-Wright's P/E
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.
Our examination of Curtiss-Wright's analyst forecasts revealed that its market-matching earnings outlook isn't impacting its high P/E as much as we would have predicted. Right now we are uncomfortable with the relatively high share price as the predicted future earnings aren't likely to support such positive sentiment for long. This places shareholders' investments at risk and potential investors in danger of paying an unnecessary premium.
There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for Curtiss-Wright that you should be aware of.
Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Curtiss-Wright. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.
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