Bojun Education Company Limited (HKG:1758) shares have retraced a considerable 27% in the last month, reversing a fair amount of their solid recent performance. Longer-term shareholders would now have taken a real hit with the stock declining 9.5% in the last year.
Following the heavy fall in price, Bojun Education may be sending buy signals at present with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.4x, considering almost half of all companies in the Consumer Services industry in Hong Kong have P/S ratios greater than 1x and even P/S higher than 3x aren't out of the ordinary. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.
Check out our latest analysis for Bojun Education
What Does Bojun Education's Recent Performance Look Like?
Bojun Education certainly has been doing a great job lately as it's been growing its revenue at a really rapid pace. Perhaps the market is expecting future revenue performance to dwindle, which has kept the P/S suppressed. Those who are bullish on Bojun Education will be hoping that this isn't the case, so that they can pick up the stock at a lower valuation.
Although there are no analyst estimates available for Bojun Education, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?
The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as low as Bojun Education's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the industry.
If we review the last year of revenue growth, we see the company's revenues grew exponentially. Although, its longer-term performance hasn't been anywhere near as strong with three-year revenue growth being relatively non-existent overall. Therefore, it's fair to say that revenue growth has been inconsistent recently for the company.
Comparing that to the industry, which is predicted to deliver 18% growth in the next 12 months, the company's momentum is weaker, based on recent medium-term annualised revenue results.
With this in consideration, it's easy to understand why Bojun Education's P/S falls short of the mark set by its industry peers. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on to something they believe will continue to trail the wider industry.
What We Can Learn From Bojun Education's P/S?
Bojun Education's recently weak share price has pulled its P/S back below other Consumer Services companies. 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.
Our examination of Bojun Education 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. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/S as they concede future revenue probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.
There are also other vital risk factors to consider and we've discovered 2 warning signs for Bojun Education (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.
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.