With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 12.3x Zijin Mining Group Company Limited (HKG:2899) may be sending bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Hong Kong have P/E ratios under 9x and even P/E's lower than 5x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Zijin Mining Group certainly has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing earnings more than most other companies. The P/E is probably high because investors think this strong earnings performance will continue. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

View our latest analysis for Zijin Mining Group

Keen to find out how analysts think Zijin Mining 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 Zijin Mining Group?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 50% last year. Pleasingly, EPS has also lifted 118% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the last 12 months of growth. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing earnings over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should generate growth of 28% as estimated by the analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 22% growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why Zijin Mining Group is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

The Bottom Line On Zijin Mining Group's P/E

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 Zijin Mining Group 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.

You always need to take note of risks, for example - Zijin Mining Group has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

If P/E ratios interest you, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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