Earnings Not Telling The Story For TaskUs, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASK) After Shares Rise 34%

TaskUs, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASK) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 34% gain in the last month alone. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 53%.

After such a large jump in price, TaskUs' price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 30.9x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 19x and even P/E's below 11x are quite common. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Recent times have been advantageous for TaskUs 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 TaskUs

Keen to find out how analysts think TaskUs' future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

Is There Enough Growth For TaskUs?

In order to justify its P/E ratio, TaskUs would need to produce outstanding growth well in excess of the market.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 28% gain to the company's bottom line. However, the latest three year period hasn't been as great in aggregate as it didn't manage to provide any growth at all. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing earnings over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should generate growth of 16% as estimated by the eight analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the market is forecast to expand by 15%, which is not materially different.

In light of this, it's curious that TaskUs' P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are ignoring the fairly average growth expectations and are willing to pay up for exposure to the stock. Although, additional gains will be difficult to achieve as this level of earnings growth is likely to weigh down the share price eventually.

The Final Word

Shares in TaskUs have built up some good momentum lately, which has really inflated its P/E. While the price-to-earnings ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of earnings expectations.

We've established that TaskUs currently trades on a higher than expected P/E since its forecast growth is only in line with the wider market. Right now we are uncomfortable with the relatively high share price as the predicted future earnings aren't likely to support such positive sentiment for long. This places shareholders' investments at risk and potential investors in danger of paying an unnecessary premium.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for TaskUs that you should be aware of.

If you're unsure about the strength of TaskUs' 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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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.