Fujian Forecam Optics Co., Ltd. (SHSE:688010) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 28% gain in the last month alone. Looking back a bit further, it's encouraging to see the stock is up 41% in the last year.

Since its price has surged higher, Fujian Forecam Optics' price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 9.5x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to other companies in the Electronic industry in China, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios below 4.5x and even P/S below 2x are quite common. 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 Fujian Forecam Optics' P/S Mean For Shareholders?

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Fujian Forecam Optics over the last year, which is not ideal at all. It might be that many expect the company to still outplay most other companies over the coming period, which has kept the P/S from collapsing. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The High P/S Ratio?

Fujian Forecam Optics' P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 13% decrease to the company's top line. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 14% in aggregate. 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 27% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this in mind, we find it worrying that Fujian Forecam Optics' P/S exceeds that of its industry peers. 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.

What Does Fujian Forecam Optics' P/S Mean For Investors?

The strong share price surge has lead to Fujian Forecam Optics' P/S soaring as well. It's argued the price-to-sales ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

Our examination of Fujian Forecam Optics revealed its shrinking revenue over the medium-term isn't resulting in a P/S as low as we expected, given the industry is set to grow. When we see revenue heading backwards and underperforming the industry forecasts, we feel the possibility of the share price declining is very real, bringing the P/S back into the realm of reasonability. Unless the the circumstances surrounding the recent medium-term improve, it wouldn't be wrong to expect a a difficult period ahead for the company's shareholders.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Fujian Forecam Optics you should know about.

Of course, profitable companies with a history of great earnings growth are generally safer bets. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.