WEILONG GRAPE WINE CO., Ltd (SHSE:603779) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 29% gain in the last month alone. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 93%.

Following the firm bounce in price, you could be forgiven for thinking WEILONG GRAPE WINE is a stock to steer clear of with a price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") of 9.8x, considering almost half the companies in China's Beverage industry have P/S ratios below 5.9x. However, the P/S might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

View our latest analysis for WEILONG GRAPE WINE

How Has WEILONG GRAPE WINE Performed Recently?

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at WEILONG GRAPE WINE over the last year, which is not ideal at all. Perhaps the market believes the company can do enough to outperform the rest of the industry in the near future, which is keeping the P/S ratio high. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The High P/S Ratio?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the industry for P/S ratios like WEILONG GRAPE WINE's to be considered reasonable.

In reviewing the last year of financials, we were disheartened to see the company's revenues fell to the tune of 7.2%. Unfortunately, that's brought it right back to where it started three years ago with revenue growth being virtually non-existent overall during that time. So it appears to us that the company has had a mixed result in terms of growing revenue over that time.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 18% over the next year, materially higher than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

With this in mind, we find it worrying that WEILONG GRAPE WINE's P/S exceeds that of its industry peers. It seems most investors are ignoring the fairly limited recent growth rates 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 recent growth rates.

The Bottom Line On WEILONG GRAPE WINE's P/S

WEILONG GRAPE WINE's P/S has grown nicely over the last month thanks to a handy boost in the share price. Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-sales ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

Our examination of WEILONG GRAPE WINE revealed its poor three-year revenue trends aren't detracting from the P/S as much as we though, given they look worse than current industry expectations. When we see slower than industry revenue growth but an elevated P/S, there's considerable risk of the share price declining, sending the P/S lower. If recent medium-term revenue trends continue, it will place shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for WEILONG GRAPE WINE (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on WEILONG GRAPE WINE, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.