With a median price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of close to 0.6x in the Chemicals industry in Germany, you could be forgiven for feeling indifferent about Wacker Chemie AG's (ETR:WCH) P/S ratio, which comes in at about the same. Although, it's not wise to simply ignore the P/S without explanation as investors may be disregarding a distinct opportunity or a costly mistake.
View our latest analysis for Wacker Chemie
While the industry has experienced revenue growth lately, Wacker Chemie's revenue has gone into reverse gear, which is not great. One possibility is that the P/S ratio is moderate because investors think this poor revenue performance will turn around. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a relatively elevated price for a company with this sort of growth profile.
If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Wacker Chemie.In order to justify its P/S ratio, Wacker Chemie would need to produce growth that's similar to 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 3.5%. As a result, revenue from three years ago have also fallen 31% overall. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of revenue growth.
Shifting to the future, estimates from the analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 1.5% per annum over the next three years. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to expand by 1.8% per annum, which is not materially different.
With this in mind, it makes sense that Wacker Chemie's P/S is closely matching its industry peers. Apparently shareholders are comfortable to simply hold on while the company is keeping a low profile.
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 seen that Wacker Chemie maintains an adequate P/S seeing as its revenue growth figures match the rest of the industry. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement or deterioration in revenue isn't great enough to push P/S in a higher or lower direction. If all things remain constant, the possibility of a drastic share price movement remains fairly remote.
We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 2 warning signs for Wacker Chemie (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you need to be mindful of.
It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So if growing profitability aligns with your idea of a great company, take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).
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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.