With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 20.2x Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) may be sending 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. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the elevated P/E.

Korn Ferry certainly has been doing a good job lately as its earnings growth has been positive while most other companies have been seeing their earnings go backwards. The P/E is probably high because investors think the company will continue to navigate the broader market headwinds better than most. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for Korn Ferry

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

How Is Korn Ferry's Growth Trending?

Korn Ferry'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 decent 4.1% gain to the company's bottom line. Still, lamentably EPS has fallen 14% in aggregate from three years ago, which is disappointing. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 16% per annum as estimated by the five analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 11% per year growth forecast for the broader market.

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

While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

We've established that Korn Ferry 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.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for Korn Ferry that you should be aware of.

You might be able to find a better investment than Korn Ferry. 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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