When close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 15x, you may consider Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.B) as a stock to potentially avoid with its 18.2x 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.

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Crawford hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining earnings compare poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth on average. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for Crawford

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

Is There Enough Growth For Crawford?

Crawford'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 14% decrease to the company's bottom line. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 7.0% overall. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 79% during the coming year according to the three analysts following the company. With the market only predicted to deliver 14%, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result.

In light of this, it's understandable that Crawford'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 Crawford'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 Crawford 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.

Having said that, be aware Crawford is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, you should know about.

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

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