Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE:OII) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 27% gain and recovering from prior weakness. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 37%.
Since its price has surged higher, Oceaneering International may be sending bearish signals at the moment with its price-to-earnings (or “P/E”) ratio of 23.6x, since almost half of all companies in the United States have P/E ratios under 17x and even P/E’s lower than 10x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we’d need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the elevated P/E.
Recent times have been pleasing for Oceaneering International as its earnings have risen in spite of the market’s earnings going into reverse. The P/E is probably high because investors think the company will continue to navigate the broader market headwinds better than most. If not, then…
