When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 16x, you may consider Howmet Aerospace Inc. (NYSE:HWM) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 33.7x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E.

Recent times have been pleasing for Howmet Aerospace 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.

Does Growth Match The High P/E?

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 65% gain to the company's bottom line. Pleasingly, EPS has also lifted 289% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 20% per year during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 11% per annum, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this information, we can see why Howmet Aerospace is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

The Bottom Line On Howmet Aerospace's P/E

Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

We've established that Howmet Aerospace 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. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 2 warning signs for Howmet Aerospace that we have uncovered.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Howmet Aerospace, 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.