With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 31.3x International Game Technology PLC (NYSE:IGT) 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 17x and even P/E's lower than 10x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so lofty.

International Game Technology could be doing better as its earnings have been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive earnings growth. It might be that many expect the dour earnings performance to recover substantially, which has kept the P/E from collapsing. If not, then existing shareholders may be extremely nervous about the viability of the share price.

View our latest analysis for International Game Technology

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

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 International Game Technology's to be considered reasonable.

Taking a look back first, we see that there was hardly any earnings per share growth to speak of for the company over the past year. Although pleasingly EPS has lifted 81% in aggregate from three years ago, notwithstanding the last 12 months. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the six analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 26% each year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 11% each year growth forecast for the broader market.

In light of this, it's understandable that International Game Technology'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 Final Word

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.

As we suspected, our examination of International Game Technology's 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.

It is also worth noting that we have found 2 warning signs for International Game Technology (1 is potentially serious!) that you need to take into consideration.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on a low P/E.

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