The SiTime Corporation (NASDAQ:SITM) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 28%. The drop over the last 30 days has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 29% in that time.

Although its price has dipped substantially, SiTime may still be sending very bearish signals at the moment with a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 14.3x, since almost half of all companies in the Semiconductor industry in the United States have P/S ratios under 4.5x and even P/S lower than 1.8x 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 lofty.

How Has SiTime Performed Recently?

SiTime could be doing better as its revenue has been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive revenue growth. Perhaps the market is expecting the poor revenue to reverse, justifying it's current high P/S.. 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?

SiTime's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the industry.

Taking a look back first, the company's revenue growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 49%. Regardless, revenue has managed to lift by a handy 24% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the earlier period of growth. Although it's been a bumpy ride, it's still fair to say the revenue growth recently has been mostly respectable for the company.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the five analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 27% each year over the next three years. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to expand by 25% per annum, which is not materially different.

With this information, we find it interesting that SiTime is trading at a high P/S compared to the industry. Apparently many investors in the company are more bullish than analysts indicate and aren't willing to let go of their stock right now. Although, additional gains will be difficult to achieve as this level of revenue growth is likely to weigh down the share price eventually.

The Bottom Line On SiTime's P/S

Even after such a strong price drop, SiTime's P/S still exceeds the industry median significantly. 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.

Seeing as its revenues are forecast to grow in line with the wider industry, it would appear that SiTime currently trades on a higher than expected P/S. Right now we are uncomfortable with the relatively high share price as the predicted future revenues aren't likely to support such positive sentiment for long. This places shareholders' investments at risk and potential investors in danger of paying an unnecessary premium.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 3 warning signs for SiTime 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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