Benign Growth For Lai Group Holding Company Limited (HKG:8455) Underpins Stock's 29% Plummet

The Lai Group Holding Company Limited (HKG:8455) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 29%. The drop over the last 30 days has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 39% in that time.

Following the heavy fall in price, given about half the companies operating in Hong Kong's Consumer Services industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") above 1.1x, you may consider Lai Group Holding as an attractive investment with its 0.1x P/S ratio. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

Check out our latest analysis for Lai Group Holding

How Lai Group Holding Has Been Performing

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Lai Group Holding over the last year, which is not ideal at all. Perhaps the market believes the recent revenue performance isn't good enough to keep up the industry, causing the P/S ratio to suffer. 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.

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

Is There Any Revenue Growth Forecasted For Lai Group Holding?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, Lai Group Holding would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the industry.

In reviewing the last year of financials, we were disheartened to see the company's revenues fell to the tune of 8.3%. This means it has also seen a slide in revenue over the longer-term as revenue is down 27% in total over the last three years. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

Comparing that to the industry, which is predicted to deliver 17% growth in the next 12 months, the company's downward momentum based on recent medium-term revenue results is a sobering picture.

With this in mind, we understand why Lai Group Holding's P/S is lower than most of its industry peers. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/S has reached a floor yet with revenue going in reverse. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as recent revenue trends are already weighing down the shares.

The Final Word

The southerly movements of Lai Group Holding's shares means its P/S is now sitting at a pretty low level. It's argued the price-to-sales ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

As we suspected, our examination of Lai Group Holding revealed its shrinking revenue over the medium-term is contributing to its low P/S, given the industry is set to grow. 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.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 2 warning signs for Lai Group Holding that 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com