When you see that almost half of the companies in the Retail Distributors industry in China have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 0.4x, Nanjing Business & Tourism Corp.,Ltd. (SHSE:600250) looks to be giving off strong sell signals with its 3.7x P/S ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so lofty.

What Does Nanjing Business & TourismLtd's Recent Performance Look Like?

Nanjing Business & TourismLtd has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing revenue at a solid pace. Perhaps the market is expecting this decent revenue performance to beat out the industry over the near term, which has kept the P/S propped up. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

How Is Nanjing Business & TourismLtd's Revenue Growth Trending?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the industry for P/S ratios like Nanjing Business & TourismLtd's to be considered reasonable.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company managed to grow revenues by a handy 12% last year. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen an unpleasant 15% overall drop in revenue. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 28% 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 Nanjing Business & TourismLtd 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. There's a very good chance existing shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/S falls to levels more in line with the recent negative growth rates.

The Final Word

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 Nanjing Business & TourismLtd currently trades on a much higher than expected P/S since its recent revenues have been in decline over the medium-term. With a revenue decline on investors' minds, the likelihood of a souring sentiment is quite high which could send the P/S back in line with what we'd expect. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve markedly, investors will have a hard time accepting the share price as fair value.

Having said that, be aware Nanjing Business & TourismLtd is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those can't be ignored.

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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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.