Saniona AB (publ) (STO:SANION) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 35% gain in the last month alone. The annual gain comes to 159% following the latest surge, making investors sit up and take notice.
Even after such a large jump in price, Saniona's price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 4x might still make it look like a buy right now compared to the Biotechs industry in Sweden, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 7.2x and even P/S above 15x are quite common. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.
See our latest analysis for Saniona
Recent times have been advantageous for Saniona 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 you like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.
Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Saniona will help you uncover what's on the horizon.Saniona'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.
Taking a look back first, we see that the company's revenues underwent some rampant growth over the last 12 months. The latest three year period has also seen an incredible overall rise in revenue, aided by its incredible short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a tremendous job of growing revenue over that time.
Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to slump, contracting by 56% during the coming year according to the sole analyst following the company. That's not great when the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 1,219%.
In light of this, it's understandable that Saniona's P/S would sit below the majority of other companies. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/S has reached a floor yet with revenue going in reverse. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.
Despite Saniona's share price climbing recently, its P/S still lags most other 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.
It's clear to see that Saniona 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. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.
You always need to take note of risks, for example - Saniona has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.
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.