North Navigation Control Technology Co.,Ltd. (SHSE:600435) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 30% in the last month, although it is still struggling to make up recently lost ground. Unfortunately, the gains of the last month did little to right the losses of the last year with the stock still down 21% over that time.

After such a large jump in price, North Navigation Control TechnologyLtd's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 66.1x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in China, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 29x and even P/E's below 18x are quite common. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Recent times have been pleasing for North Navigation Control TechnologyLtd as its earnings have risen in spite of the market's earnings going into reverse. The P/E is probably high because investors think the company will continue to navigate the broader market headwinds better than most. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

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

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the market for P/E ratios like North Navigation Control TechnologyLtd's to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered virtually the same number to the company's bottom line as the year before. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 392% overall rise in EPS, in spite of its uninspiring short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the five analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 53% over the next year. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 41% growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why North Navigation Control TechnologyLtd 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.

The Key Takeaway

The strong share price surge has got North Navigation Control TechnologyLtd's P/E rushing to great heights as well. 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 North Navigation Control TechnologyLtd 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. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

The company's balance sheet is another key area for risk analysis. You can assess many of the main risks through our free balance sheet analysis for North Navigation Control TechnologyLtd with six simple checks.

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.