With a median price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of close to 0.3x in the Electronic industry in Singapore, you could be forgiven for feeling indifferent about TrickleStar Limited's (Catalist:CYW) P/S ratio of 0.8x. Although, it's not wise to simply ignore the P/S without explanation as investors may be disregarding a distinct opportunity or a costly mistake.
See our latest analysis for TrickleStar
How TrickleStar Has Been Performing
TrickleStar has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing revenue at a solid pace. It might be that many expect the respectable revenue performance to wane, which has kept the P/S from rising. 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 not quite in favour.
Although there are no analyst estimates available for TrickleStar, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What Are Revenue Growth Metrics Telling Us About The P/S?
TrickleStar's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver moderate growth, and importantly, perform in line with the industry.
Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew revenue by an impressive 22% last year. Still, revenue has fallen 4.9% in total from three years ago, which is quite disappointing. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of revenue growth.
Comparing that to the industry, which is predicted to deliver 15% growth in the next 12 months, the company's downward momentum based on recent medium-term revenue results is a sobering picture.
With this information, we find it concerning that TrickleStar is trading at a fairly similar P/S compared to the industry. It seems most investors are ignoring the recent poor growth rate and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. There's a good chance existing shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/S falls to levels more in line with the recent negative growth rates.
What Does TrickleStar's P/S Mean For Investors?
While the price-to-sales ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of revenue expectations.
The fact that TrickleStar currently trades at a P/S on par with the rest of the industry is surprising to us since its recent revenues have been in decline over the medium-term, all while the industry is set to grow. Even though it matches the industry, we're uncomfortable with the current P/S ratio, as this dismal revenue performance is unlikely to support a more positive sentiment for long. Unless the the circumstances surrounding the recent medium-term improve, it wouldn't be wrong to expect a a difficult period ahead for the company's shareholders.