When close to half the companies operating in the Luxury industry in the United States have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") above 0.8x, you may consider Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW) as an attractive investment with its 0.3x P/S ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

Check out our latest analysis for Wolverine World Wide

What Does Wolverine World Wide's P/S Mean For Shareholders?

While the industry has experienced revenue growth lately, Wolverine World Wide's revenue has gone into reverse gear, which is not great. 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.

Is There Any Revenue Growth Forecasted For Wolverine World Wide?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, Wolverine World Wide would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing 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 10%. That put a dampener on the good run it was having over the longer-term as its three-year revenue growth is still a noteworthy 26% in total. Accordingly, while they would have preferred to keep the run going, shareholders would be roughly satisfied with the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with revenue decreasing 13% as estimated by the eight analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the broader industry is forecast to expand by 7.2%, which paints a poor picture.

With this in consideration, we find it intriguing that Wolverine World Wide's P/S is closely matching its industry peers. However, shrinking revenues are unlikely to lead to a stable P/S over the longer term. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

The Final Word

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 Wolverine World Wide's P/S is on the lower end of the spectrum. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Wolverine World Wide (of which 2 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Wolverine World Wide, 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.