With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 25.9x SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) may be sending very bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios under 16x and even P/E's lower than 9x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

SS&C Technologies Holdings' negative earnings growth of late has neither been better nor worse than most other companies. It might be that many expect the company's earnings to strengthen positively despite the tough market conditions, which has kept the P/E from falling. If not, then existing shareholders may be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

How Is SS&C Technologies Holdings' Growth Trending?

SS&C Technologies Holdings' P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the market.

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. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing earnings over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 17% per year as estimated by the twelve analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 10% per annum growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's understandable that SS&C Technologies Holdings' P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.

The Bottom Line On SS&C Technologies Holdings' P/E

We'd say the price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

As we suspected, our examination of SS&C Technologies Holdings' analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. 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 1 warning sign for SS&C Technologies Holdings that we have uncovered.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than SS&C Technologies 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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