X Financial (NYSE:XYF) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 27% gain in the last month alone. The annual gain comes to 274% following the latest surge, making investors sit up and take notice.

Although its price has surged higher, given about half the companies in the United States have price-to-earnings ratios (or "P/E's") above 18x, you may still consider X Financial as a highly attractive investment with its 2.9x P/E ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so limited.

Our free stock report includes 3 warning signs investors should be aware of before investing in X Financial. Read for free now.

X Financial has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing earnings at a solid pace. It might be that many expect the respectable earnings performance to degrade substantially, which has repressed the P/E. If you like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

We don't have analyst forecasts, but you can see how recent trends are setting up the company for the future by checking out our free report on X Financial's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Is There Any Growth For X Financial?

X Financial's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling earnings, and importantly, perform much worse than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 29%. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 143% overall rise in EPS, aided by its short-term performance. Therefore, it's fair to say the earnings growth recently has been superb for the company.

Comparing that to the market, which is only predicted to deliver 13% growth in the next 12 months, the company's momentum is stronger based on recent medium-term annualised earnings results.

In light of this, it's peculiar that X Financial's P/E sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently some shareholders believe the recent performance has exceeded its limits and have been accepting significantly lower selling prices.

What We Can Learn From X Financial's P/E?

X Financial's recent share price jump still sees its P/E sitting firmly flat on the ground. Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-earnings ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.

We've established that X Financial currently trades on a much lower than expected P/E since its recent three-year growth is higher than the wider market forecast. When we see strong earnings with faster-than-market growth, we assume potential risks are what might be placing significant pressure on the P/E ratio. At least price risks look to be very low if recent medium-term earnings trends continue, but investors seem to think future earnings could see a lot of volatility.

You might be able to find a better investment than X Financial.

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.