With Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) It Looks Like You'll Get What You Pay For

With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 34.3x Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) 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 19x and even P/E's lower than 11x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E.

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Recent times have been advantageous for Valmont Industries as its earnings have been rising faster than most other companies. The P/E is probably high because investors think this strong earnings performance will continue. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

View our latest analysis for Valmont Industries

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Valmont Industries.

Is There Enough Growth For Valmont Industries?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 34% last year. EPS has also lifted 8.0% in aggregate from three years ago, mostly thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been respectable for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the five analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 31% per year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 11% per annum growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's understandable that Valmont Industries' 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 Key Takeaway

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 Valmont Industries 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.

It is also worth noting that we have found 2 warning signs for Valmont Industries that you need to take into consideration.

If you're unsure about the strength of Valmont Industries' business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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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.