With a median price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of close to 0.9x in the Food industry in the United States, you could be forgiven for feeling indifferent about Beyond Meat, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BYND) P/S ratio of 1.3x. However, investors might be overlooking a clear opportunity or potential setback if there is no rational basis for the P/S.

What Does Beyond Meat's P/S Mean For Shareholders?

Beyond Meat 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. It might be that many expect the dour revenue performance to strengthen positively, which has kept the P/S from falling. If not, then existing shareholders may be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

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

There's an inherent assumption that a company should be matching the industry for P/S ratios like Beyond Meat's to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 11% decrease to the company's top line. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 30% in aggregate. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 6.1% per annum during the coming three years according to the ten analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 3.1% per year growth forecast for the broader industry.

With this information, we find it interesting that Beyond Meat is trading at a fairly similar P/S compared to the industry. It may be that most investors aren't convinced the company can achieve future growth expectations.

The Key Takeaway

We'd say the price-to-sales ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

We've established that Beyond Meat currently trades on a lower than expected P/S since its forecasted revenue growth is higher than the wider industry. Perhaps uncertainty in the revenue forecasts are what's keeping the P/S ratio consistent with the rest of the industry. This uncertainty seems to be reflected in the share price which, while stable, could be higher given the revenue forecasts.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Beyond Meat (1 is potentially serious) you should be aware of.

If strong companies turning a profit tickle your fancy, then you'll want to check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a low P/E (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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