When close to half the companies operating in the Healthcare industry in the United States have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") above 1.2x, you may consider AdaptHealth Corp. (NASDAQ:AHCO) as an attractive investment with its 0.4x P/S ratio. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.
How Has AdaptHealth Performed Recently?
AdaptHealth could be doing better as it's been growing revenue less than most other companies lately. It seems that many are expecting the uninspiring revenue performance to persist, which has repressed the growth of the P/S ratio. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.
If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on AdaptHealth.How Is AdaptHealth's Revenue Growth Trending?
In order to justify its P/S ratio, AdaptHealth would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the industry.
Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 6.1% gain to the company's revenues. This was backed up an excellent period prior to see revenue up by 87% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenues over that time.
Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 3.0% during the coming year according to the nine analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 7.7% growth forecast for the broader industry.
With this information, we can see why AdaptHealth is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on while the company is potentially eyeing a less prosperous future.
What Does AdaptHealth's P/S Mean For Investors?
While the price-to-sales ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of revenue expectations.
We've established that AdaptHealth maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider industry, as expected. Shareholders' pessimism on the revenue prospects for the company seems to be the main contributor to the depressed P/S. The company will need a change of fortune to justify the P/S rising higher in the future.
Having said that, be aware AdaptHealth is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis, you should know about.
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.
