The Valens Semiconductor Ltd. (NYSE:VLN) share price has done very well over the last month, posting an excellent gain of 25%.    Not all shareholders will be feeling jubilant, since the share price is still down a very disappointing 49% in the last twelve months.  

Although its price has surged higher, Valens Semiconductor may still be sending buy signals at present with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 3.1x, considering almost half of all companies in the Semiconductor industry in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 4x and even P/S higher than 9x aren't out of the ordinary.   Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.  

NYSE:VLN Price to Sales Ratio vs Industry February 22nd 2024

What Does Valens Semiconductor's P/S Mean For Shareholders?

Valens Semiconductor 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 you still 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.    

Keen to find out how analysts think Valens Semiconductor's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

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 Valens Semiconductor's to be considered reasonable.  

In reviewing the last year of financials, we were disheartened to see the company's revenues fell to the tune of 2.6%.   However, a few very strong years before that means that it was still able to grow revenue by an impressive 51% in total over the last three years.  So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a very good job of growing revenue over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.  

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 44%  per annum as estimated by the three analysts watching the company.  Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to only expand by 26% per annum, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this in consideration, we find it intriguing that Valens Semiconductor's P/S sits behind most of its industry peers.  It looks like most investors are not convinced at all that the company can achieve future growth expectations.  

What We Can Learn From Valens Semiconductor's P/S?

The latest share price surge wasn't enough to lift Valens Semiconductor's P/S close to the industry median.      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.

A look at Valens Semiconductor's revenues reveals that, despite glowing future growth forecasts, its P/S is much lower than we'd expect.  There could be some major risk factors that are placing downward pressure on the P/S ratio.  At least price risks look to be very low, but investors seem to think future revenues could see a lot of volatility.    

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified   1 warning sign for Valens Semiconductor  that you should be aware of.  

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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