To the annoyance of some shareholders, SkyWater Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYT) shares are down a considerable 25% in the last month, which continues a horrid run for the company. The drop over the last 30 days has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 27% in that time.

After such a large drop in price, SkyWater Technology may be sending very bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1.2x, since almost half of all companies in the Semiconductor industry in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 4.3x and even P/S higher than 11x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so limited.

How Has SkyWater Technology Performed Recently?

Recent times haven't been great for SkyWater Technology as its revenue has been rising slower than most other companies. Perhaps the market is expecting the current trend of poor revenue growth to continue, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

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

SkyWater Technology's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling revenue, and importantly, perform much worse than the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 30% gain to the company's top line. Pleasingly, revenue has also lifted 98% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the last 12 months of growth. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 10.0% per annum as estimated by the five analysts watching the company. With the industry predicted to deliver 26% growth each year, the company is positioned for a weaker revenue result.

With this in consideration, its clear as to why SkyWater Technology's P/S is falling short industry peers. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

What We Can Learn From SkyWater Technology's P/S?

Shares in SkyWater Technology have plummeted and its P/S has followed suit. Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-sales ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

As expected, our analysis of SkyWater Technology's analyst forecasts confirms that the company's underwhelming revenue outlook is a major contributor to its low P/S. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 4 warning signs for SkyWater Technology that you should be aware of.

If companies with solid past earnings growth is up your alley, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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