FIGS, Inc. (NYSE:FIGS) shares have had a horrible month, losing 26% after a relatively good period beforehand. The drop over the last 30 days has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 22% in that time.

Although its price has dipped substantially, given close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 19x, you may still consider FIGS as a stock to avoid entirely with its 74.8x 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.

While the market has experienced earnings growth lately, FIGS' earnings have gone into reverse gear, which is not great. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think this poor earnings performance will turn the corner. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

View our latest analysis for FIGS

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

What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/E?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, FIGS would need to produce outstanding growth well in excess of the market.

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 33%. 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.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 44% per annum during the coming three years according to the ten analysts following the company. With the market only predicted to deliver 10% each year, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result.

With this information, we can see why FIGS is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.

What We Can Learn From FIGS' P/E?

FIGS' shares may have retreated, but its P/E is still flying high. 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 FIGS maintains its high P/E on the strength of its forecast growth being higher than the wider market, as expected. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Having said that, be aware FIGS is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, you should know about.

If you're unsure about the strength of FIGS' 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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