Benign Growth For Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials Co., Ltd (SZSE:002455) Underpins Stock's 25% Plummet

The Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials Co., Ltd (SZSE:002455) share price has softened a substantial 25% over the previous 30 days, handing back much of the gains the stock has made lately. Longer-term, the stock has been solid despite a difficult 30 days, gaining 19% in the last year.

After such a large drop in price, Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials may be sending bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1.2x, since almost half of all companies in the Chemicals industry in China have P/S ratios greater than 1.8x and even P/S higher than 4x are not unusual. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

View our latest analysis for Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials

What Does Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials' Recent Performance Look Like?

Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing revenue at a solid pace. It might be that many expect the respectable revenue performance to degrade substantially, which has repressed the P/S. If that doesn't eventuate, then existing shareholders have reason to be optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on 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 Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials' to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 15% gain to the company's top line. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 66% overall rise in revenue, aided by its short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 22% over the next year, materially higher than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

In light of this, it's understandable that Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials' P/S sits below the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting to see the recent limited growth rates continue into the future and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Final Word

Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials' recently weak share price has pulled its P/S back below other Chemicals companies. While the price-to-sales ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of revenue expectations.

As we suspected, our examination of Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials revealed its three-year revenue trends are contributing to its low P/S, given they look worse than current industry expectations. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Jiangsu Baichuan High-Tech New Materials 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.

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