Beng Kuang Marine Limited (SGX:BEZ) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 27% gain in the last month alone. The annual gain comes to 186% following the latest surge, making investors sit up and take notice.

Although its price has surged higher, there still wouldn't be many who think Beng Kuang Marine's price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.6x is worth a mention when the median P/S in Singapore's Commercial Services industry is similar at about 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.

How Beng Kuang Marine Has Been Performing

Beng Kuang Marine certainly has been doing a great job lately as it's been growing its revenue at a really rapid pace. The P/S is probably moderate because investors think this strong revenue growth might not be enough to outperform the broader industry in the near future. 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.

What Are Revenue Growth Metrics Telling Us About The P/S?

Beng Kuang Marine'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.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 34% gain to the company's top line. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow revenue by 86% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 15% over the next year, materially lower than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

In light of this, it's curious that Beng Kuang Marine's P/S sits in line with the majority of other companies. It may be that most investors are not convinced the company can maintain its recent growth rates.

The Bottom Line On Beng Kuang Marine's P/S

Beng Kuang Marine's stock has a lot of momentum behind it lately, which has brought its P/S level with the rest of the industry. Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-sales ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.

We didn't quite envision Beng Kuang Marine's P/S sitting in line with the wider industry, considering the revenue growth over the last three-year is higher than the current industry outlook. When we see strong revenue with faster-than-industry growth, we can only assume potential risks are what might be placing pressure on the P/S ratio. At least the risk of a price drop looks to be subdued if recent medium-term revenue trends continue, but investors seem to think future revenue could see some volatility.

Before you settle on your opinion, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Beng Kuang Marine that you should be aware of.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So if growing profitability aligns with your idea of a great company, take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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