Gray Media, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) Stock Catapults 35% Though Its Price And Business Still Lag The Industry

The Gray Media, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) share price has done very well over the last month, posting an excellent gain of 35%. 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.

Although its price has surged higher, Gray Media's price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.1x might still make it look like a buy right now compared to the Media industry in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 1x and even P/S above 4x are quite common. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

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Check out our latest analysis for Gray Media

How Gray Media Has Been Performing

Recent times have been advantageous for Gray Media as its revenues have been rising faster than most other companies. Perhaps the market is expecting future revenue performance to dive, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If not, then existing shareholders have reason to be quite optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

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How Is Gray Media's Revenue Growth Trending?

Gray Media's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the industry.

If we review the last year of revenue growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 9.1%. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 34% overall rise in revenue, aided somewhat by its short-term performance. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been superb for the company.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with revenue decreasing 8.7% as estimated by the six analysts watching the company. With the industry predicted to deliver 1.6% growth, that's a disappointing outcome.

With this information, we are not surprised that Gray Media is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. However, shrinking revenues are unlikely to lead to a stable P/S over the longer term. There's potential for the P/S to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its top-line growth.

The Bottom Line On Gray Media's P/S

Gray Media's stock price has surged recently, but its but its P/S still remains modest. 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.

It's clear to see that Gray Media maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its forecast for sliding revenue, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 3 warning signs for Gray Media (2 are significant!) that you need to be mindful of.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Gray Media, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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.