Those holding Yangzhou Chenhua New Material Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300610) shares would be relieved that the share price has rebounded 43% in the last thirty days, but it needs to keep going to repair the recent damage it has caused to investor portfolios. Not all shareholders will be feeling jubilant, since the share price is still down a very disappointing 19% in the last twelve months.

After such a large jump in price, Yangzhou Chenhua New Material's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 37.7x might make it look like a sell right now compared to the market in China, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 31x and even P/E's below 19x are quite common. However, the P/E might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Yangzhou Chenhua New Material has been struggling lately as its earnings have declined faster than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think the company will turn things around completely and accelerate past most others in the market. If not, then existing shareholders may be very nervous about the viability of the share price.

How Is Yangzhou Chenhua New Material's Growth Trending?

Yangzhou Chenhua New Material'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 a frustrating 54% decrease to the company's bottom line. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 58% overall. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the two analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 138% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 40%, which is noticeably less attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that Yangzhou Chenhua New Material's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

What We Can Learn From Yangzhou Chenhua New Material's P/E?

Yangzhou Chenhua New Material shares have received a push in the right direction, but its P/E is elevated too. 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 Yangzhou Chenhua New Material 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.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Yangzhou Chenhua New Material (1 doesn't sit too well with us) you should be aware of.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Yangzhou Chenhua New Material, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.