Clover Health Investments, Corp. (NASDAQ:CLOV) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 36% in the last month, although it is still struggling to make up recently lost ground. But the gains over the last month weren't enough to make shareholders whole, as the share price is still down 6.2% in the last twelve months.

Although its price has surged higher, considering around half the companies operating in the United States' Healthcare industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") above 1.2x, you may still consider Clover Health Investments as an solid investment opportunity with its 0.2x P/S ratio. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

How Has Clover Health Investments Performed Recently?

While the industry has experienced revenue growth lately, Clover Health Investments' 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 this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

Keen to find out how analysts think Clover Health Investments' future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

How Is Clover Health Investments' Revenue Growth Trending?

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

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 36%. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 186% overall rise in revenue, in spite of its unsatisfying short-term performance. Although it's been a bumpy ride, it's still fair to say the revenue growth recently has been more than adequate for the company.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to slump, contracting by 11% each year during the coming three years according to the three analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the broader industry is forecast to expand by 7.4% per year, which paints a poor picture.

With this information, we are not surprised that Clover Health Investments 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. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

The Final Word

The latest share price surge wasn't enough to lift Clover Health Investments' P/S close to the industry median. 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.

It's clear to see that Clover Health Investments maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its forecast for sliding revenue, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 2 warning signs for Clover Health Investments that we have uncovered.

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.