With a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.4x PENN Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all the Hospitality companies in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 1.5x and even P/S higher than 4x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

What Does PENN Entertainment's P/S Mean For Shareholders?

While the industry has experienced revenue growth lately, PENN Entertainment's revenue has gone into reverse gear, which is not great. It seems that many are expecting the poor revenue performance to persist, which has repressed the P/S ratio. If you still 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.

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on PENN Entertainment.

What Are Revenue Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/S?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, PENN Entertainment would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the industry.

Taking a look back first, the company's revenue growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 4.2%. This has soured the latest three-year period, which nevertheless managed to deliver a decent 26% overall rise in revenue. Accordingly, while they would have preferred to keep the run going, shareholders would be roughly satisfied with the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 7.3% per year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 12% per annum growth forecast for the broader industry.

In light of this, it's understandable that PENN Entertainment's P/S sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently many shareholders weren't comfortable holding on while the company is potentially eyeing a less prosperous future.

The Final Word

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 PENN Entertainment 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. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

A lot of potential risks can sit within a company's balance sheet. You can assess many of the main risks through our free balance sheet analysis for PENN Entertainment with six simple checks.

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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