The Price Is Right For The Monogatari Corporation (TSE:3097)

With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 23.4x The Monogatari Corporation (TSE:3097) may be sending very bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Japan have P/E ratios under 12x and even P/E's lower than 8x are not unusual. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

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Recent times have been advantageous for Monogatari 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.

Check out our latest analysis for Monogatari

Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Monogatari will help you uncover what's on the horizon.

How Is Monogatari's Growth Trending?

Monogatari's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 19%. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow EPS by 104% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the four analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 13% per year over the next three years. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to only expand by 9.7% per annum, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this information, we can see why Monogatari 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.

What We Can Learn From Monogatari's P/E?

Using the price-to-earnings ratio alone to determine if you should sell your stock isn't sensible, however it can be a practical guide to the company's future prospects.

We've established that Monogatari maintains its high P/E on the strength of its forecast growth being higher than the wider market, as expected. 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.

A lot of potential risks can sit within a company's balance sheet. Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis for Monogatari with six simple checks on some of these key factors.

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.