With a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.7x Cimpress plc (NASDAQ:CMPR) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all the Commercial Services companies in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 1.3x and even P/S higher than 4x are not unusual. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

How Cimpress Has Been Performing

With revenue growth that's inferior to most other companies of late, Cimpress has been relatively sluggish. It seems that many are expecting the uninspiring revenue performance to persist, which has repressed the growth of the P/S ratio. If you still like the company, you'd be hoping revenue doesn't get any worse and that you could pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the industry for P/S ratios like Cimpress' to be considered reasonable.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company managed to grow revenues by a handy 7.8% last year. Pleasingly, revenue has also lifted 37% in aggregate from three years ago, partly thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been superb for the company.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 6.0% each year during the coming three years according to the two analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 21% each year growth forecast for the broader industry.

With this information, we can see why Cimpress is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

What Does Cimpress' P/S Mean For Investors?

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.

As we suspected, our examination of Cimpress' analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior revenue outlook is contributing to its low P/S. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/S as they concede future revenue probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Plus, you should also learn about this 1 warning sign we've spotted with Cimpress.

If companies with solid past earnings growth is up your alley, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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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.