When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 18x, you may consider Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) as a stock to potentially avoid with its 28.2x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's as high as it is.

Recent times have been advantageous for Avient 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. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

View our latest analysis for Avient

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

Is There Enough Growth For Avient?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 380% last year. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen a very unpleasant 32% drop in EPS in aggregate. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should generate growth of 19% as estimated by the six analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 15% growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why Avient 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.

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 Avient's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

Having said that, be aware Avient is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is significant.

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

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.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.