Ranpak Holdings Corp. (NYSE:PACK) Looks Just Right With A 42% Price Jump

Ranpak Holdings Corp. (NYSE:PACK) shareholders have had their patience rewarded with a 42% share price jump in the last month. The last 30 days bring the annual gain to a very sharp 41%.

Since its price has surged higher, given close to half the companies operating in the United States' Packaging industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 0.8x, you may consider Ranpak Holdings as a stock to potentially avoid with its 1.6x P/S ratio. However, the P/S might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

View our latest analysis for Ranpak Holdings

How Ranpak Holdings Has Been Performing

Ranpak Holdings certainly has been doing a good job lately as its revenue growth has been positive while most other companies have been seeing their revenue go backwards. It seems that many are expecting the company to continue defying the broader industry adversity, which has increased investors’ willingness to pay up for the stock. However, if this isn't the case, investors might get caught out paying too much for the stock.

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Ranpak Holdings.

What Are Revenue Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/S?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as high as Ranpak Holdings' is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 3.0% gain to the company's revenues. The solid recent performance means it was also able to grow revenue by 13% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has actually done a good job of growing revenue over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the three analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 11% each year over the next three years. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to only expand by 2.3% per year, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this in mind, it's not hard to understand why Ranpak Holdings' P/S is high relative to its industry peers. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock.

What We Can Learn From Ranpak Holdings' P/S?

Ranpak Holdings' P/S is on the rise since its shares have risen strongly. 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.

As we suspected, our examination of Ranpak Holdings' analyst forecasts revealed that its superior revenue outlook is contributing to its high P/S. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/S as they are quite confident future revenues aren't under threat. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 2 warning signs for Ranpak Holdings you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant.

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.