Phoenix New Media Limited (NYSE:FENG) shares have had a horrible month, losing 26% after a relatively good period beforehand. The good news is that in the last year, the stock has shone bright like a diamond, gaining 105%.

After such a large drop in price, Phoenix New Media may be sending bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.3x, since almost half of all companies in the Interactive Media and Services industry in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 1.4x and even P/S higher than 4x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

How Phoenix New Media Has Been Performing

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Phoenix New Media over the last year, which is not ideal at all. It might be that many expect the disappointing revenue performance to continue or accelerate, which has repressed the P/S. 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 out of favour.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as low as Phoenix New Media's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the industry.

Taking a look back first, the company's revenue growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 7.9%. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 40% in aggregate. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 13% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this information, we are not surprised that Phoenix New Media is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/S has reached a floor yet with revenue going in reverse. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as recent revenue trends are already weighing down the shares.

The Bottom Line On Phoenix New Media's P/S

The southerly movements of Phoenix New Media's shares means its P/S is now sitting at a pretty low level. 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.

Our examination of Phoenix New Media confirms that the company's shrinking revenue over the past medium-term is a key factor in its low price-to-sales ratio, given the industry is projected to grow. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/S as they concede future revenue probably won't provide any pleasant surprises either. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Phoenix New Media (of which 2 are concerning!) you should know about.

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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