ITEK, Inc. (KOSDAQ:119830) shareholders would be excited to see that the share price has had a great month, posting a 28% gain and recovering from prior weakness. Looking further back, the 22% rise over the last twelve months isn't too bad notwithstanding the strength over the last 30 days.
Following the firm bounce in price, you could be forgiven for thinking ITEK is a stock not worth researching with a price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") of 2.6x, considering almost half the companies in Korea's Semiconductor industry have P/S ratios below 1.7x. However, the P/S might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.
See our latest analysis for ITEK
ITEK has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing revenue at a solid pace. Perhaps the market is expecting this decent revenue performance to beat out the industry over the near term, which has kept the P/S propped up. If not, then existing shareholders may be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.
Although there are no analyst estimates available for ITEK, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.ITEK's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver solid growth, and importantly, perform better than the industry.
Retrospectively, the last year delivered an exceptional 23% gain to the company's top line. Still, revenue has fallen 10% in total from three years ago, which is quite disappointing. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been undesirable for the company.
In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 64% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.
With this in mind, we find it worrying that ITEK's P/S exceeds that of its industry peers. It seems most investors are ignoring the recent poor growth rate and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. There's a very good chance existing shareholders are setting themselves up for future disappointment if the P/S falls to levels more in line with the recent negative growth rates.
The large bounce in ITEK's shares has lifted the company's P/S handsomely. Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-sales ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.
We've established that ITEK currently trades on a much higher than expected P/S since its recent revenues have been in decline over the medium-term. When we see revenue heading backwards and underperforming the industry forecasts, we feel the possibility of the share price declining is very real, bringing the P/S back into the realm of reasonability. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve markedly, investors will have a hard time accepting the share price as fair value.
It's always necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with ITEK, and understanding these should be part of your investment process.
If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on ITEK, 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.