What You Can Learn From Orocobre Limited's (ASX:ORE) P/E

When close to half the companies in Australia have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 15x, you may consider Orocobre Limited (ASX:ORE) as a stock to avoid entirely with its 52.9x 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.

Orocobre hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining earnings compare poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth on average. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think this poor earnings performance will turn the corner. If not, then existing shareholders may be extremely nervous about the viability of the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for Orocobre

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Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Orocobre will help you uncover what's on the horizon.

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 Orocobre's to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 13% decrease to the company's bottom line. However, a few very strong years before that means that it was still able to grow EPS by an impressive 107% in total over the last three years. Although it's been a bumpy ride, it's still fair to say the earnings growth recently has been more than adequate for the company.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 77% per year during the coming three years according to the eight analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 12% per annum growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's understandable that Orocobre's 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 Orocobre's P/E

It's argued the price-to-earnings ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

As we suspected, our examination of Orocobre's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. 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.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 4 warning signs for Orocobre (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that we have uncovered.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than Orocobre. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that sit on P/E's below 20x and have grown earnings strongly.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.

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