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Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings Limited (HKG:909) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 28% gain and recovering from prior weakness. Unfortunately, the gains of the last month did little to right the losses of the last year with the stock still down 29% over that time.

Following the firm bounce in price, you could be forgiven for thinking Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings is a stock not worth researching with a price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") of 2.4x, considering almost half the companies in Hong Kong's Software industry have P/S ratios below 1.2x. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's as high as it is.

View our latest analysis for Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings

How Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings Has Been Performing

Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings could be doing better as its revenue has been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive revenue growth. Perhaps the market is expecting the poor revenue to reverse, justifying it's current high P/S.. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

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

There's an inherent assumption that a company should outperform the industry for P/S ratios like Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings' to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 5.9% decrease to the company's top line. As a result, revenue from three years ago have also fallen 20% overall. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 11% per annum as estimated by the nine analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 14% per annum growth forecast for the broader industry.

In light of this, it's alarming that Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings' P/S sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects, but the analyst cohort is not so confident this will happen. There's a good chance these shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/S falls to levels more in line with the growth outlook.

What We Can Learn From Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings' P/S?

The large bounce in Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings' shares has lifted the company's P/S handsomely. 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.

Despite analysts forecasting some poorer-than-industry revenue growth figures for Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings, this doesn't appear to be impacting the P/S in the slightest. Right now we aren't comfortable with the high P/S as the predicted future revenues aren't likely to support such positive sentiment for long. At these price levels, investors should remain cautious, particularly if things don't improve.

Many other vital risk factors can be found on the company's balance sheet. Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis for Ming Yuan Cloud Group Holdings with six simple checks on some of these key factors.

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.