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TL Natural Gas Holdings Limited (HKG:8536) shareholders that were waiting for something to happen have been dealt a blow with a 34% share price drop in the last month. Of course, over the longer-term many would still wish they owned shares as the stock's price has soared 107% in the last twelve months.

Even after such a large drop in price, there still wouldn't be many who think TL Natural Gas Holdings' price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.8x is worth a mention when the median P/S in Hong Kong's Specialty Retail industry is similar at about 0.4x. Although, it's not wise to simply ignore the P/S without explanation as investors may be disregarding a distinct opportunity or a costly mistake.

See our latest analysis for TL Natural Gas Holdings

How Has TL Natural Gas Holdings Performed Recently?

TL Natural Gas Holdings has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing revenue at a solid pace. Perhaps the market is expecting future revenue performance to only keep up with the broader industry, which has keeping the P/S in line with expectations. If that doesn't eventuate, then existing shareholders probably aren't too pessimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The P/S Ratio?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, TL Natural Gas Holdings would need to produce growth that's similar to the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew revenue by an impressive 27% last year. Pleasingly, revenue has also lifted 65% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the last 12 months of growth. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 11% over the next year, materially lower than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

With this information, we find it interesting that TL Natural Gas Holdings is trading at a fairly similar P/S compared to the industry. It may be that most investors are not convinced the company can maintain its recent growth rates.

The Final Word

TL Natural Gas Holdings' plummeting stock price has brought its P/S back to a similar region as the rest of the industry. 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 didn't quite envision TL Natural Gas Holdings' P/S sitting in line with the wider industry, considering the revenue growth over the last three-year is higher than the current industry outlook. When we see strong revenue with faster-than-industry growth, we can only assume potential risks are what might be placing pressure on the P/S ratio. While recent revenue trends over the past medium-term suggest that the risk of a price decline is low, investors appear to see the likelihood of revenue fluctuations in the future.

Having said that, be aware TL Natural Gas Holdings is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is significant.

If you're unsure about the strength of TL Natural Gas Holdings' business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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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.