You may think that with a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1.6x ICU Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICUI) is a stock worth checking out, seeing as almost half of all the Medical Equipment companies in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 3.3x and even P/S higher than 8x aren't out of the ordinary. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

How ICU Medical Has Been Performing

Recent times haven't been great for ICU Medical as its revenue has been rising slower than most other companies. Perhaps the market is expecting the current trend of poor revenue growth to continue, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

Is There Any Revenue Growth Forecasted For ICU Medical?

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

If we review the last year of revenue growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 4.0%. Pleasingly, revenue has also lifted 81% in aggregate from three years ago, partly thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been superb for the company.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should bring diminished returns, with revenue decreasing 0.4% each year as estimated by the six analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the broader industry is forecast to expand by 9.4% each year, which paints a poor picture.

In light of this, it's understandable that ICU Medical's P/S would sit below the majority of other companies. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/S has reached a floor yet with revenue going in reverse. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

The Bottom Line On ICU Medical's P/S

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.

As we suspected, our examination of ICU Medical's analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking revenue is contributing to its low P/S. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Plus, you should also learn about these 2 warning signs we've spotted with ICU Medical (including 1 which doesn't sit too well with us).

If you're unsure about the strength of ICU Medical's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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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.