Investors Aren't Buying Itim Group Plc's (LON:ITIM) Revenues

With a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.8x Itim Group Plc (LON:ITIM) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all the Software companies in the United Kingdom have P/S ratios greater than 2.5x and even P/S higher than 5x 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.

Check out our latest analysis for Itim Group

How Has Itim Group Performed Recently?

Recent times have been advantageous for Itim Group as its revenues have been rising faster than most other companies. Perhaps the market is expecting future revenue performance to dive, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If not, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Itim Group will help you uncover what's on the horizon.

Is There Any Revenue Growth Forecasted For Itim Group?

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 20% gain to the company's top line. The strong recent performance means it was also able to grow revenue by 38% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the lone analyst covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 0.04% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to expand by 9.8%, which is noticeably more attractive.

With this information, we can see why Itim Group is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Key Takeaway

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.

As we suspected, our examination of Itim Group's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior revenue outlook is contributing to its low P/S. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

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

If you're unsure about the strength of Itim Group's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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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.