When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 16x, you may consider Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:THR) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 26.7x 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.

Thermon Group Holdings 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. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

See our latest analysis for Thermon Group Holdings

How Is Thermon Group Holdings' Growth Trending?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as Thermon Group Holdings' is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 11%. Although, the latest three year period in total hasn't been as good as it didn't manage to provide any growth at all. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing earnings over that time.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 44% during the coming year according to the two analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 10%, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this information, we can see why Thermon Group Holdings is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.

What We Can Learn From Thermon Group Holdings' 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 Thermon Group Holdings maintains its high P/E on the strength of its forecast growth being higher than the wider market, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for a deterioration in earnings isn't great enough to justify a lower P/E ratio. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

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

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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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.