BizConf Telecom Co.,Ltd. (SZSE:300578) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 49% gain and recovering from prior weakness. While recent buyers may be laughing, long-term holders might not be as pleased since the recent gain only brings the stock back to where it started a year ago.

Following the firm bounce in price, when almost half of the companies in China's Telecom industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 4x, you may consider BizConf TelecomLtd as a stock not worth researching with its 8.9x P/S ratio. However, the P/S might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

What Does BizConf TelecomLtd's Recent Performance Look Like?

For instance, BizConf TelecomLtd's receding revenue in recent times would have to be some food for thought. One possibility is that the P/S is high because investors think the company will still do enough to outperform the broader industry in the near future. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

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

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as steep as BizConf TelecomLtd's is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the industry decidedly.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 22% decrease to the company's top line. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 48% 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 4.4% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this information, we find it concerning that BizConf TelecomLtd is trading at a P/S higher than the industry. It seems most investors are ignoring the recent poor growth rate and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as a continuation of recent revenue trends is likely to weigh heavily on the share price eventually.

The Key Takeaway

BizConf TelecomLtd's P/S has grown nicely over the last month thanks to a handy boost in the share price. 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.

We've established that BizConf TelecomLtd currently trades on a much higher than expected P/S since its recent revenues have been in decline over the medium-term. Right now we aren't comfortable with the high P/S as this revenue performance is highly unlikely to support such positive sentiment for long. Should recent medium-term revenue trends persist, it would pose a significant risk to existing shareholders' investments and prospective investors will have a hard time accepting the current value of the stock.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider and we've discovered 2 warning signs for BizConf TelecomLtd (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So if growing profitability aligns with your idea of a great company, take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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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.