Investors Give De.mem Limited (ASX:DEM) Shares A 29% Hiding

The De.mem Limited (ASX:DEM) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 29%. Instead of being rewarded, shareholders who have already held through the last twelve months are now sitting on a 29% share price drop.

After such a large drop in price, considering around half the companies operating in Australia's Water Utilities industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") above 2x, you may consider De.mem as an solid investment opportunity with its 1.2x P/S ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

Check out our latest analysis for De.mem

What Does De.mem's Recent Performance Look Like?

Revenue has risen at a steady rate over the last year for De.mem, which is generally not a bad outcome. Perhaps the market believes the recent revenue performance might fall short of industry figures in the near future, leading to a reduced P/S. If you like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

We don't have analyst forecasts, but you can see how recent trends are setting up the company for the future by checking out our free report on De.mem's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What Are Revenue Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/S?

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

If we review the last year of revenue growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 6.4%. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 38% overall rise in revenue, aided somewhat by its short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenues over that time.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 7.7% over the next year, materially lower than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

In light of this, it's peculiar that De.mem's P/S sits below the majority of other companies. It looks like most investors are not convinced the company can maintain its recent growth rates.

The Final Word

De.mem's recently weak share price has pulled its P/S back below other Water Utilities companies. 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.

We're very surprised to see De.mem currently trading on a much lower than expected P/S since its recent three-year growth is higher than the wider industry forecast. Potential investors that are sceptical over continued revenue performance may be preventing the P/S ratio from matching previous strong performance. It appears many are indeed anticipating revenue instability, because the persistence of these recent medium-term conditions would normally provide a boost to the share price.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 2 warning signs for De.mem that we have uncovered.

If strong companies turning a profit tickle your fancy, then you'll want to check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a low P/E (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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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.