Unfortunately for some shareholders, the Lion Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ:LGHL) share price has dived 28% in the last thirty days, prolonging recent pain. For any long-term shareholders, the last month ends a year to forget by locking in a 95% share price decline.

Following the heavy fall in price, Lion Group Holding's price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.2x might make it look like a strong buy right now compared to the wider Capital Markets industry in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 3x and even P/S above 8x 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.

How Lion Group Holding Has Been Performing

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Lion Group Holding over the last year, which is not ideal at all. One possibility is that the P/S is low because investors think the company won't do enough to avoid underperforming the broader industry in the near future. Those who are bullish on Lion Group Holding will be hoping that this isn't the case so that they can pick up the stock at a lower valuation.

How Is Lion Group Holding's Revenue Growth Trending?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, Lion Group Holding would need to produce anemic growth that's substantially trailing the industry.

In reviewing the last year of financials, we were disheartened to see the company's revenues fell to the tune of 20%. As a result, revenue from three years ago have also fallen 24% overall. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been undesirable for the company.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 9.5% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this information, we are not surprised that Lion Group Holding is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. However, we think shrinking revenues are unlikely to lead to a stable P/S over the longer term, which could set up shareholders for future disappointment. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as recent revenue trends are already weighing down the shares.

What We Can Learn From Lion Group Holding's P/S?

Having almost fallen off a cliff, Lion Group Holding's share price has pulled its P/S way down as well. Using the price-to-sales ratio alone to determine if you should sell your stock isn't sensible, however it can be a practical guide to the company's future prospects.

As we suspected, our examination of Lion Group Holding revealed its shrinking revenue over the medium-term is contributing to its low P/S, given the industry is set to grow. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. If recent medium-term revenue trends continue, it's hard to see the share price moving strongly in either direction in the near future under these circumstances.

You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 4 warning signs for Lion Group Holding you should be aware of, and 3 of them are significant.

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.