With Budimex SA (WSE:BDX) It Looks Like You'll Get What You Pay For

With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 22.4x Budimex SA (WSE:BDX) may be sending very bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in Poland 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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Budimex could be doing better as its earnings have been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive earnings growth. It might be that many expect the dour earnings performance to recover substantially, which has kept the P/E from collapsing. If not, then existing shareholders may be extremely nervous about the viability of the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for Budimex

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What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/E?

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

If we review the last year of earnings, dishearteningly the company's profits fell to the tune of 19%. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 31% overall rise in EPS, in spite of its unsatisfying short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a very good job of growing earnings over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 16% per annum during the coming three years according to the five analysts following the company. With the market only predicted to deliver 14% per year, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result.

With this information, we can see why Budimex 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 Budimex's P/E

Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

We've established that Budimex 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. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

It is also worth noting that we have found 1 warning sign for Budimex that you need to take into consideration.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on a low P/E.

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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.