When close to half the companies in the Media industry in the United States have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 0.8x, you may consider PubMatic, Inc. (NASDAQ:PUBM) as a stock to potentially avoid with its 2.6x P/S ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the elevated P/S.

What Does PubMatic's P/S Mean For Shareholders?

Recent times have been advantageous for PubMatic as its revenues have been rising faster than most other companies. The P/S is probably high because investors think this strong revenue performance will continue. However, if this isn't the case, investors might get caught out paying too much for the stock.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The High P/S Ratio?

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 13% gain to the company's revenues. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 40% overall rise in revenue, aided somewhat by its short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenues over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the twelve analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 8.0% per year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 5.5% per annum growth forecast for the broader industry.

With this in mind, it's not hard to understand why PubMatic's P/S is high relative to its industry peers. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.

The Key Takeaway

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.

As we suspected, our examination of PubMatic's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior revenue outlook is contributing to its high P/S. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/S as they are quite confident future revenues aren't under threat. Unless the analysts have really missed the mark, these strong revenue forecasts should keep the share price buoyant.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for PubMatic that 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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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.