Those holding LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) shares would be relieved that the share price has rebounded 29% in the last thirty days, but it needs to keep going to repair the recent damage it has caused to investor portfolios. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 39%.

After such a large jump in price, given close to half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") below 17x, you may consider LPL Financial Holdings as a stock to avoid entirely with its 27.8x P/E ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E.

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Recent times have been advantageous for LPL Financial Holdings 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.

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

How Is LPL Financial Holdings' Growth Trending?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as LPL Financial Holdings' is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 8.6% gain to the company's bottom line. This was backed up an excellent period prior to see EPS up by 135% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, shareholders would have probably welcomed those medium-term rates of earnings growth.

Looking ahead now, EPS is anticipated to climb by 20% per annum during the coming three years according to the eleven analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 10% per annum growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why LPL Financial Holdings 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.

What We Can Learn From LPL Financial Holdings' P/E?

The strong share price surge has got LPL Financial Holdings' P/E rushing to great heights as well. It's argued the price-to-earnings ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

As we suspected, our examination of LPL Financial Holdings' analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

Of course, you might also be able to find a better stock than LPL Financial Holdings. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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.