Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge Co., Ltd (SZSE:300210) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 34% gain in the last month alone. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 57%.

After such a large jump in price, given around half the companies in China's Machinery industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 3.1x, you may consider Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge as a stock to avoid entirely with its 13.4x P/S ratio. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge

How Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge Has Been Performing

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge over the last year, which is not ideal at all. Perhaps the market believes the company can do enough to outperform the rest of the industry in the near future, which is keeping the P/S ratio high. However, if this isn't the case, investors might get caught out paying too much for the stock.

How Is Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge's Revenue Growth Trending?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the industry for P/S ratios like Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge'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 18%. As a result, revenue from three years ago have also fallen 53% overall. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 32% 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 Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge's 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.

The Final Word

The strong share price surge has lead to Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge's P/S soaring as well. 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 Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge currently trades on a much higher than expected P/S since its recent revenues have been in decline over the medium-term. With a revenue decline on investors' minds, the likelihood of a souring sentiment is quite high which could send the P/S back in line with what we'd expect. If recent medium-term revenue trends continue, it will place shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Anshan Senyuan Road and Bridge (2 shouldn't be ignored) 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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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.