Despite an already strong run, Vivos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVOS) shares have been powering on, with a gain of 27% in the last thirty days. Unfortunately, the gains of the last month did little to right the losses of the last year with the stock still down 19% over that time.

Even after such a large jump in price, you could still be forgiven for feeling indifferent about Vivos Therapeutics' P/S ratio of 1.1x, since the median price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio for the Healthcare industry in the United States is also close to 1x. However, investors might be overlooking a clear opportunity or potential setback if there is no rational basis for the P/S.

How Vivos Therapeutics Has Been Performing

Vivos Therapeutics could be doing better as its revenue has been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive revenue growth. It might be that many expect the dour revenue performance to strengthen positively, which has kept the P/S from falling. However, if this isn't the case, investors might get caught out paying too much for the stock.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The P/S Ratio?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, Vivos Therapeutics would need to produce growth that's similar to the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 9.2% decrease to the company's top line. This means it has also seen a slide in revenue over the longer-term as revenue is down 3.6% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 35% during the coming year according to the dual analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 7.5% growth forecast for the broader industry.

In light of this, it's curious that Vivos Therapeutics' P/S sits in line with the majority of other companies. It may be that most investors aren't convinced the company can achieve future growth expectations.

What Does Vivos Therapeutics' P/S Mean For Investors?

Its shares have lifted substantially and now Vivos Therapeutics' P/S is back within range of the industry median. 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 Vivos Therapeutics currently trades on a lower than expected P/S since its forecasted revenue growth is higher than the wider industry. There could be some risks that the market is pricing in, which is preventing the P/S ratio from matching the positive outlook. However, if you agree with the analysts' forecasts, you may be able to pick up the stock at an attractive price.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Vivos Therapeutics (of which 2 are a bit unpleasant!) you should know about.

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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