China International Holdings Limited (SGX:BEH) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 59% gain in the last month alone.    Longer-term shareholders would be thankful for the recovery in the share price since it's now virtually flat for the year after the recent bounce.  

Even after such a large jump in price, China International Holdings' price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.4x might still make it look like a buy right now compared to the Water Utilities industry in Singapore, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 1.5x and even P/S above 4x 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.  

SGX:BEH Price to Sales Ratio vs Industry March 8th 2024

What Does China International Holdings' P/S Mean For Shareholders?

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at China International Holdings over the last year, which is not ideal at all.   It might be that many expect the disappointing revenue performance to continue or accelerate, which has repressed the P/S.  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 earnings, revenue and cash flow for the company? Then our free report on China International Holdings will help you shine a light on its historical performance.  

How Is China International Holdings' Revenue Growth Trending?  

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the industry for P/S ratios like China International Holdings' to be considered reasonable.  

In reviewing the last year of financials, we were disheartened to see the company's revenues fell to the tune of 5.5%.   The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 38% 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 13% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this information, we are not surprised that China International Holdings is trading at a P/S lower than the industry.  Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/S has reached a floor yet with revenue going in reverse.  There's potential for the P/S to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its top-line growth.  

The Final Word

The latest share price surge wasn't enough to lift China International Holdings' P/S close to the industry median.      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.

As we suspected, our examination of China International Holdings revealed its shrinking revenue over the medium-term is contributing to its low P/S, given the industry is set to grow.  At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio.  Given the current circumstances, it seems unlikely that the share price will experience any significant movement in either direction in the near future if recent medium-term revenue trends persist.    

We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 4 warning signs for China International Holdings (3 make us uncomfortable!) that you need to be mindful of.  

If strong companies turning a profit tickle your fancy, then you'll want to check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a low P/E (but have proven they can grow earnings).

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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.