Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry Co., Ltd (SZSE:300340) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 39% gain in the last month alone. Unfortunately, the gains of the last month did little to right the losses of the last year with the stock still down 13% over that time.

Even after such a large jump in price, Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry may still be sending bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1.1x, since almost half of all companies in the Chemicals industry in China have P/S ratios greater than 2.2x and even P/S higher than 5x 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 limited.

How Has Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry Performed Recently?

For example, consider that Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry's financial performance has been poor lately as its revenue has been in decline. 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. If you 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.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 37% decrease to the company's top line. Unfortunately, that's brought it right back to where it started three years ago with revenue growth being virtually non-existent overall during that time. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 21% over the next year, materially higher than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

With this information, we can see why Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. It seems most investors are expecting to see the recent limited growth rates continue into the future and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Final Word

The latest share price surge wasn't enough to lift Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry's P/S close to the industry median. 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.

In line with expectations, Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its recent three-year growth being lower than the wider industry forecast. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

It is also worth noting that we have found 4 warning signs for Jiangmen Kanhoo Industry (3 shouldn't be ignored!) that you need to take into consideration.

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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