Sohu.com Limited's (NASDAQ:SOHU) price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.8x might make it look like a buy right now compared to the Entertainment industry in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 1.5x and even P/S above 5x are quite common. 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 Sohu.com Has Been Performing

Sohu.com hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining revenue compares poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth in their revenues on average. The P/S ratio is probably low because investors think this poor revenue performance isn't going to get any better. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

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

Sohu.com's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 9.3% decrease to the company's top line. 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. Therefore, it's fair to say that revenue growth has been inconsistent recently for the company.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with revenue decreasing 2.1% as estimated by the dual analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the broader industry is forecast to expand by 11%, which paints a poor picture.

With this information, we are not surprised that Sohu.com 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. There's potential for the P/S to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its top-line growth.

The Bottom Line On Sohu.com's P/S

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.

With revenue forecasts that are inferior to the rest of the industry, it's no surprise that Sohu.com's P/S is on the lower end of the spectrum. As other companies in the industry are forecasting revenue growth, Sohu.com's poor outlook justifies its low P/S ratio. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

You need to take note of risks, for example - Sohu.com has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is significant) we think you should know about.

Of course, profitable companies with a history of great earnings growth are generally safer bets. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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