LK CHEM Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ:489500) shareholders have had their patience rewarded with a 26% share price jump in the last month. Longer-term shareholders would be thankful for the recovery in the share price since it's now virtually flat for the year after the recent bounce.
After such a large jump in price, given around half the companies in Korea's Chemicals industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 0.7x, you may consider LK CHEM as a stock to avoid entirely with its 7.5x P/S ratio. However, the P/S might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.
View our latest analysis for LK CHEM
LK CHEM hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining revenue compares poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth in their revenues on average. Perhaps the market is expecting the poor revenue to reverse, justifying it's current high P/S.. If not, then existing shareholders may be extremely nervous about the viability of the share price.
Keen to find out how analysts think LK CHEM's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.LK CHEM'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 20%. Even so, admirably revenue has lifted 45% in aggregate from three years ago, notwithstanding the last 12 months. Accordingly, while they would have preferred to keep the run going, shareholders would definitely welcome the medium-term rates of revenue growth.
Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 58% during the coming year according to the only analyst following the company. With the industry only predicted to deliver 13%, the company is positioned for a stronger revenue result.
With this in mind, it's not hard to understand why LK CHEM's P/S is high relative to its industry peers. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.
The strong share price surge has lead to LK CHEM's P/S soaring as well. Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-sales ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.
As we suspected, our examination of LK CHEM's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior revenue outlook is contributing to its high P/S. It appears that shareholders are confident in the company's future revenues, which is propping up the P/S. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.
There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 2 warning signs for LK CHEM that you should be aware of.
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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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.