Silence Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:SLN) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 26% gain in the last month alone. Looking back a bit further, it's encouraging to see the stock is up 72% in the last year.

After such a large jump in price, Silence Therapeutics may be sending very bearish signals at the moment with a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 24.3x, since almost half of all companies in the Biotechs industry in the United States have P/S ratios under 13.7x and even P/S lower than 4x are not unusual. However, the P/S might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

What Does Silence Therapeutics' P/S Mean For Shareholders?

With revenue growth that's superior to most other companies of late, Silence Therapeutics has been doing relatively well. It seems that many are expecting the strong revenue performance to persist, which has raised the P/S. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

How Is Silence Therapeutics' Revenue Growth Trending?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, Silence Therapeutics would need to produce outstanding growth that's well in excess of the industry.

If we review the last year of revenue growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 74%. This great performance means it was also able to deliver immense revenue growth over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a tremendous job of growing revenue over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the five analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 0.6% each year over the next three years. With the industry predicted to deliver 226% growth per annum, the company is positioned for a weaker revenue result.

With this in consideration, we believe it doesn't make sense that Silence Therapeutics' P/S is outpacing its industry peers. It seems most investors are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects, but the analyst cohort is not so confident this will happen. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as this level of revenue growth is likely to weigh heavily on the share price eventually.

The Key Takeaway

The strong share price surge has lead to Silence Therapeutics' 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.

It comes as a surprise to see Silence Therapeutics trade at such a high P/S given the revenue forecasts look less than stellar. When we see a weak revenue outlook, we suspect the share price faces a much greater risk of declining, bringing back down the P/S figures. This places shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Silence Therapeutics (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.

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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