Hoe Leong Corporation Ltd. (SGX:H20) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 100% gain and recovering from prior weakness. Looking back a bit further, it's encouraging to see the stock is up 100% in the last year.

After such a large jump in price, given close to half the companies in Singapore have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 12x, you may consider Hoe Leong as a stock to avoid entirely with its 41.6x 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.

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With earnings growth that's exceedingly strong of late, Hoe Leong has been doing very well. The P/E is probably high because investors think this strong earnings growth will be enough to outperform the broader market in the near future. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

View our latest analysis for Hoe Leong

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Hoe Leong, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Is There Enough Growth For Hoe Leong?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 200% last year. Still, incredibly EPS has fallen 71% in total from three years ago, which is quite disappointing. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Comparing that to the market, which is predicted to deliver 13% growth in the next 12 months, the company's downward momentum based on recent medium-term earnings results is a sobering picture.

In light of this, it's alarming that Hoe Leong's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are ignoring the recent poor growth rate and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as a continuation of recent earnings trends is likely to weigh heavily on the share price eventually.

The Bottom Line On Hoe Leong's P/E

Hoe Leong's P/E is flying high just like its stock has during the last month. While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

Our examination of Hoe Leong revealed its shrinking earnings over the medium-term aren't impacting its high P/E anywhere near as much as we would have predicted, given the market is set to grow. When we see earnings heading backwards and underperforming the market forecasts, we suspect the share price is at risk of declining, sending the high P/E lower. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve markedly, it's very challenging to accept these prices as being reasonable.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Hoe Leong (1 is significant) you should be aware of.

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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