The IRIDEX Corporation (NASDAQ:IRIX) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 27%. The drop over the last 30 days has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 10% in that time.

Since its price has dipped substantially, IRIDEX's price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.6x might make it look like a strong buy right now compared to the wider Medical Equipment industry in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 3.1x and even P/S above 7x are quite common. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/S.

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

IRIDEX hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining revenue compares poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth in their revenues on average. Perhaps the P/S remains low as investors think the prospects of strong revenue growth aren't on the horizon. If you still like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

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

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

In reviewing the last year of financials, we were disheartened to see the company's revenues fell to the tune of 13%. This has soured the latest three-year period, which nevertheless managed to deliver a decent 27% overall rise in revenue. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a good job of growing revenue over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 1.9% during the coming year according to the sole analyst following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to expand by 9.5%, which is noticeably more attractive.

With this information, we can see why IRIDEX is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on while the company is potentially eyeing a less prosperous future.

The Bottom Line On IRIDEX's P/S

Shares in IRIDEX 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.

We've established that IRIDEX maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider industry, as expected. Shareholders' pessimism on the revenue prospects for the company seems to be the main contributor to the depressed P/S. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 4 warning signs for IRIDEX you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant.

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.

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