Revenues Not Telling The Story For Hang Pin Living Technology Company Limited (HKG:1682) After Shares Rise 36%

Hang Pin Living Technology Company Limited (HKG:1682) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 36% gain and recovering from prior weakness. Unfortunately, the gains of the last month did little to right the losses of the last year with the stock still down 18% over that time.

In spite of the firm bounce in price, it's still not a stretch to say that Hang Pin Living Technology's price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.5x right now seems quite "middle-of-the-road" compared to the Luxury industry in Hong Kong, where the median P/S ratio is around 0.7x. While this might not raise any eyebrows, if the P/S ratio is not justified investors could be missing out on a potential opportunity or ignoring looming disappointment.

Check out our latest analysis for Hang Pin Living Technology

How Has Hang Pin Living Technology Performed Recently?

Revenue has risen at a steady rate over the last year for Hang Pin Living Technology, which is generally not a bad outcome. It might be that many expect the respectable revenue performance to only match most other companies over the coming period, which has kept the P/S from rising. 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 not quite in favour.

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Hang Pin Living Technology, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Is There Some Revenue Growth Forecasted For Hang Pin Living Technology?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should be matching the industry for P/S ratios like Hang Pin Living Technology's to be considered reasonable.

If we review the last year of revenue growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 3.8%. Although, the latest three year period in total hasn't been as good as it didn't manage to provide any growth at all. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 13% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this in mind, we find it worrying that Hang Pin Living Technology's P/S exceeds that of its industry peers. It seems most investors are ignoring the recent poor growth rate and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. There's a 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.

What We Can Learn From Hang Pin Living Technology's P/S?

Hang Pin Living Technology appears to be back in favour with a solid price jump bringing its P/S back in line with other companies in the industry 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 find it unexpected that Hang Pin Living Technology trades at a P/S ratio that is comparable to the rest of the industry, despite experiencing declining revenues during the medium-term, while the industry as a whole is expected to grow. When we see revenue heading backwards in the context of growing industry forecasts, it'd make sense to expect a possible share price decline on the horizon, sending the moderate P/S lower. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve markedly, investors will have a hard time accepting the share price as fair value.

Plus, you should also learn about these 3 warning signs we've spotted with Hang Pin Living Technology (including 2 which make us uncomfortable).

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Hang Pin Living Technology, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.