Okamoto Glass Co., Ltd. (TSE:7746) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 36% gain in the last month alone. The last month tops off a massive increase of 103% in the last year.
After such a large jump in price, you could be forgiven for thinking Okamoto Glass is a stock to steer clear of with a price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") of 3.1x, considering almost half the companies in Japan's Electronic industry have P/S ratios below 0.7x. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/S.
View our latest analysis for Okamoto Glass
As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Okamoto Glass over the last year, which is not ideal at all. One possibility is that the P/S is high because investors think the company will still do enough to outperform the broader industry in the near future. However, if this isn't the case, investors might get caught out paying too much for the stock.
Although there are no analyst estimates available for Okamoto Glass, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the industry for P/S ratios like Okamoto Glass' to be considered reasonable.
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 9.5%. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 18% in aggregate. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been undesirable for the company.
In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 7.0% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.
With this information, we find it concerning that Okamoto Glass is trading at a P/S higher than the industry. Apparently many investors in the company are way more bullish than recent times would indicate and aren't willing to let go of their stock at any price. There's a very good chance existing shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/S falls to levels more in line with the recent negative growth rates.
The strong share price surge has lead to Okamoto Glass' P/S soaring as well. It's argued the price-to-sales ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.
We've established that Okamoto Glass currently trades on a much higher than expected P/S since its recent revenues have been in decline over the medium-term. Right now we aren't comfortable with the high P/S as this revenue performance is highly unlikely to support such positive sentiment for long. If recent medium-term revenue trends continue, it will place shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.
There are also other vital risk factors to consider and we've discovered 3 warning signs for Okamoto Glass (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.
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.