Beijing Aerospace Changfeng Co.,Ltd (SHSE:600855) shareholders have had their patience rewarded with a 28% share price jump in the last month. Not all shareholders will be feeling jubilant, since the share price is still down a very disappointing 21% in the last twelve months.

Following the firm bounce in price, you could be forgiven for thinking Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd is a stock to steer clear of with a price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") of 3.5x, considering almost half the companies in China's Industrials industry have P/S ratios below 0.9x. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/S.

What Does Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd's Recent Performance Look Like?

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd over the last year, which is not ideal at all. One possibility is that the P/S is high because investors think the company will still do enough to outperform the broader industry in the near future. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

How Is Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd's Revenue Growth Trending?

Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 25% decrease to the company's top line. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 54% in aggregate. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 4.9% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this information, we find it concerning that Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd is trading at a P/S higher than the industry. 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 Key Takeaway

Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd's P/S has grown nicely over the last month thanks to a handy boost in the share price. 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 Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd revealed its shrinking revenue over the medium-term isn't resulting in a P/S as low as we expected, given the industry is set to grow. With a revenue decline on investors' minds, the likelihood of a souring sentiment is quite high which could send the P/S back in line with what we'd expect. Should recent medium-term revenue trends persist, it would pose a significant risk to existing shareholders' investments and prospective investors will have a hard time accepting the current value of the stock.

You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 1 warning sign for Beijing Aerospace ChangfengLtd you should be aware of.

If companies with solid past earnings growth is up your alley, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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