When close to half the companies in Australia have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 18x, you may consider Computershare Limited (ASX:CPU) as a stock to potentially avoid with its 21.2x P/E ratio. However, the P/E might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Recent times have been pleasing for Computershare as its earnings have risen in spite of the market's earnings going into reverse. It seems that many are expecting the company to continue defying the broader market adversity, which has increased investors’ willingness to pay up for the stock. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

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Is There Enough Growth For Computershare?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew earnings per share by an impressive 95% last year. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 73% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 17% each year during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. With the market predicted to deliver 18% growth each year, the company is positioned for a comparable earnings result.

With this information, we find it interesting that Computershare is trading at a high P/E compared to the market. Apparently many investors in the company are more bullish than analysts indicate and aren't willing to let go of their stock right now. These shareholders may be setting themselves up for disappointment if the P/E falls to levels more in line with the growth outlook.

The Bottom Line On Computershare'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 Computershare 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.