The Market Doesn't Like What It Sees From Wonik Corporation's (KOSDAQ:032940) Revenues Yet

When you see that almost half of the companies in the Healthcare industry in Korea have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") above 1.5x, Wonik Corporation (KOSDAQ:032940) looks to be giving off some buy signals with its 0.5x P/S ratio. 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 Wonik

How Wonik Has Been Performing

The revenue growth achieved at Wonik over the last year would be more than acceptable for most companies. Perhaps the market is expecting this acceptable revenue performance to take a dive, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If that doesn't eventuate, then existing shareholders have reason to be optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Wonik, 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 Wonik?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as low as Wonik's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 13% gain to the company's revenues. Pleasingly, revenue has also lifted 49% in aggregate from three years ago, partly thanks to the last 12 months of growth. Accordingly, shareholders would have definitely welcomed those medium-term rates of revenue growth.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 17% over the next year, materially higher than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

In light of this, it's understandable that Wonik's P/S sits below the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting to see the recent limited growth rates continue into the future and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Key Takeaway

While the price-to-sales ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of revenue expectations.

Our examination of Wonik confirms that the company's revenue trends over the past three-year years are a key factor in its low price-to-sales ratio, as we suspected, given they fall short of current industry expectations. 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.

Having said that, be aware Wonik is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, you should know about.

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.