With a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.4x Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC) may be sending bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all the Machinery companies in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 1.6x and even P/S higher than 4x are not unusual. 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 Wabash National Has Been Performing

While the industry has experienced revenue growth lately, Wabash National's revenue has gone into reverse gear, which is not great. The P/S ratio is probably low because investors think this poor revenue performance isn't going to get any better. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Wabash National will help you uncover what's on the horizon.

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

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

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 18% decrease to the company's top line. Regardless, revenue has managed to lift by a handy 23% in aggregate from three years ago, thanks to the earlier period of growth. Accordingly, while they would have preferred to keep the run going, shareholders would be roughly satisfied with the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should bring diminished returns, with revenue decreasing 9.0% as estimated by the dual analysts watching the company. With the industry predicted to deliver 0.09% growth, that's a disappointing outcome.

With this information, we are not surprised that Wabash National is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. However, shrinking revenues are unlikely to lead to a stable P/S over the longer term. Even just maintaining these prices could be difficult to achieve as the weak outlook is weighing down the shares.

What We Can Learn From Wabash National's P/S?

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.

It's clear to see that Wabash National maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its forecast for sliding revenue, as expected. As other companies in the industry are forecasting revenue growth, Wabash National's poor outlook justifies its low P/S ratio. Unless there's material change, it's hard to envision a situation where the stock price will rise drastically.

You always need to take note of risks, for example - Wabash National has 2 warning signs we think 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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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.