With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 12x Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HRMY) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios greater than 17x and even P/E's higher than 33x 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 limited.

Recent times haven't been advantageous for Harmony Biosciences Holdings as its earnings have been falling quicker than most other companies. The P/E is probably low because investors think this poor earnings performance isn't going to improve at all. You'd much rather the company wasn't bleeding earnings if you still believe in the business. If not, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for Harmony Biosciences Holdings

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/E?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the market for P/E ratios like Harmony Biosciences Holdings' to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 4.5% decrease to the company's bottom line. At least EPS has managed not to go completely backwards from three years ago in aggregate, thanks to the earlier period of growth. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 30% each year during the coming three years according to the eight analysts following the company. With the market only predicted to deliver 12% per annum, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result.

With this information, we find it odd that Harmony Biosciences Holdings is trading at a P/E lower than the market. Apparently some shareholders are doubtful of the forecasts and have been accepting significantly lower selling prices.

What We Can Learn From Harmony Biosciences Holdings' P/E?

Using the price-to-earnings ratio alone to determine if you should sell your stock isn't sensible, however it can be a practical guide to the company's future prospects.

We've established that Harmony Biosciences Holdings currently trades on a much lower than expected P/E since its forecast growth is higher than the wider market. There could be some major unobserved threats to earnings preventing the P/E ratio from matching the positive outlook. It appears many are indeed anticipating earnings instability, because these conditions should normally provide a boost to the share price.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Harmony Biosciences Holdings that you should be aware of.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Harmony Biosciences Holdings. 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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