Investors Aren't Entirely Convinced By Veranda Learning Solutions Limited's (NSE:VERANDA) Revenues

With a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 3.5x Veranda Learning Solutions Limited (NSE:VERANDA) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all the Consumer Services companies in India have P/S ratios greater than 4.4x and even P/S higher than 9x 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 Veranda Learning Solutions

How Veranda Learning Solutions Has Been Performing

With revenue growth that's exceedingly strong of late, Veranda Learning Solutions has been doing very well. Perhaps the market is expecting future revenue performance to dwindle, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If that doesn't eventuate, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Veranda Learning Solutions, 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?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew revenue by an impressive 50% last year. Spectacularly, three year revenue growth has ballooned by several orders of magnitude, thanks in part to the last 12 months of revenue growth. 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 19% 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 Veranda Learning Solutions' 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.

The Final Word

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're very surprised to see Veranda Learning Solutions 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 strong revenue with faster-than-industry growth, we assume there are some significant underlying risks to the company's ability to make money which is applying downwards 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.

You always need to take note of risks, for example - Veranda Learning Solutions has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So if growing profitability aligns with your idea of a great company, take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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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.