A Piece Of The Puzzle Missing From ARSS Infrastructure Projects Limited's (NSE:ARSSINFRA) 26% Share Price Climb

ARSS Infrastructure Projects Limited (NSE:ARSSINFRA) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 26% in the last month, although it is still struggling to make up recently lost ground. Longer-term shareholders would be thankful for the recovery in the share price since it's now virtually flat for the year after the recent bounce.

In spite of the firm bounce in price, ARSS Infrastructure Projects may still be sending bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.1x, since almost half of all companies in the Construction industry in India have P/S ratios greater than 2.1x and even P/S higher than 5x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

See our latest analysis for ARSS Infrastructure Projects

How Has ARSS Infrastructure Projects Performed Recently?

It looks like revenue growth has deserted ARSS Infrastructure Projects recently, which is not something to boast about. Perhaps the market believes the recent lacklustre revenue performance is a sign of future underperformance relative to industry peers, hurting the P/S. If not, then existing shareholders may be feeling optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Although there are no analyst estimates available for ARSS Infrastructure Projects, 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?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, ARSS Infrastructure Projects would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that there was hardly any revenue growth to speak of for the company over the past year. However, a few strong years before that means that it was still able to grow revenue by an impressive 89% in total over the last three years. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been great for the company, but investors will want to ask why it has slowed to such an extent.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 15% over the next year, materially lower than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

With this in mind, we find it intriguing that ARSS Infrastructure Projects' P/S isn't as high compared to that of its industry peers. It looks like most investors are not convinced the company can maintain its recent growth rates.

What Does ARSS Infrastructure Projects' P/S Mean For Investors?

Despite ARSS Infrastructure Projects' share price climbing recently, its P/S still lags most other companies. We'd say the price-to-sales ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

We're very surprised to see ARSS Infrastructure Projects currently trading on a much lower than expected P/S since its recent three-year growth is higher than the wider industry forecast. When we see robust revenue growth that outpaces the industry, we presume that there are notable underlying risks to the company's future performance, which is exerting downward pressure on the P/S ratio. It appears many are indeed anticipating revenue instability, because the persistence of these recent medium-term conditions would normally provide a boost to the share price.

Plus, you should also learn about these 3 warning signs we've spotted with ARSS Infrastructure Projects.

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.