When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 18x, you may consider WEC Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEC) as a stock to potentially avoid with its 22.9x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

While the market has experienced earnings growth lately, WEC Energy Group's earnings have gone into reverse gear, which is not great. It might be that many expect the dour earnings performance to recover substantially, which has kept the P/E from collapsing. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

See our latest analysis for WEC Energy Group

Keen to find out how analysts think WEC Energy Group's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

Is There Enough Growth For WEC Energy Group?

WEC Energy Group's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver solid growth, and importantly, perform better than the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 5.5% decrease to the company's bottom line. This means it has also seen a slide in earnings over the longer-term as EPS is down 2.0% in total over the last three years. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 13% per annum during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. With the market only predicted to deliver 11% per annum, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result.

In light of this, it's understandable that WEC Energy Group'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.

What We Can Learn From WEC Energy Group's 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.

We've established that WEC Energy Group 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.

We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 2 warning signs for WEC Energy Group (1 is potentially serious!) that you need to be mindful of.

You might be able to find a better investment than WEC Energy Group. If you want a selection of possible candidates, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a low P/E (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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