When you see that almost half of the companies in the Communications industry in France have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 0.6x, Parrot S.A. (EPA:PARRO) looks to be giving off strong sell signals with its 2.8x P/S ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so lofty.
View our latest analysis for Parrot
How Has Parrot Performed Recently?
The revenue growth achieved at Parrot over the last year would be more than acceptable for most companies. It might be that many expect the respectable revenue performance to beat most other companies over the coming period, which has increased investors’ willingness to pay up for the stock. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.
Although there are no analyst estimates available for Parrot, 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 High P/S?
There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the industry for P/S ratios like Parrot's to be considered reasonable.
Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 20% gain to the company's top line. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 44% overall rise in revenue, aided by its short-term performance. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been superb for the company.
This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 7.3% over the next year, materially lower than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.
With this in consideration, it's not hard to understand why Parrot's P/S is high relative to its industry peers. Presumably shareholders aren't keen to offload something they believe will continue to outmanoeuvre the wider industry.
The Key Takeaway
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 established that Parrot maintains its high P/S on the strength of its recent three-year growth being higher than the wider industry forecast, as expected. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/S as they are quite confident revenue aren't under threat. Barring any significant changes to the company's ability to make money, the share price should continue to be propped up.
There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for Parrot that you should be aware of.
If you're unsure about the strength of Parrot's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.
Valuation is complex, but we're here to simplify it.
Discover if Parrot might be undervalued or overvalued with our detailed analysis, featuring fair value estimates, potential risks, dividends, insider trades, and its financial condition.
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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.