Kiu Hung International Holdings Limited's (HKG:381) 49% Cheaper Price Remains In Tune With Revenues

Kiu Hung International Holdings Limited (HKG:381) shares have retraced a considerable 49% in the last month, reversing a fair amount of their solid recent performance. Nonetheless, the last 30 days have barely left a scratch on the stock's annual performance, which is up a whopping 735%.

In spite of the heavy fall in price, given around half the companies in Hong Kong's Leisure industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 0.6x, you may still consider Kiu Hung International Holdings as a stock to avoid entirely with its 3.4x P/S ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/S.

View our latest analysis for Kiu Hung International Holdings

How Kiu Hung International Holdings Has Been Performing

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Kiu Hung International Holdings over the last year, which is not ideal at all. Perhaps the market believes the company can do enough to outperform the rest of the industry in the near future, which is keeping the P/S ratio high. If not, then existing shareholders may be quite nervous about the viability of the share price.

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

There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the industry for P/S ratios like Kiu Hung International Holdings' 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 1.4%. However, a few very strong years before that means that it was still able to grow revenue by an impressive 64% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, while they would have preferred to keep the run going, shareholders would definitely welcome the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

When compared to the industry's one-year growth forecast of 10%, the most recent medium-term revenue trajectory is noticeably more alluring

In light of this, it's understandable that Kiu Hung International Holdings' P/S sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting this strong growth to continue and are willing to pay more for the stock.

What Does Kiu Hung International Holdings' P/S Mean For Investors?

Even after such a strong price drop, Kiu Hung International Holdings' P/S still exceeds the industry median significantly. We'd say the price-to-sales ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

We've established that Kiu Hung International Holdings maintains its high P/S on the strength of its recent three-year growth being higher than the wider industry forecast, as expected. In the eyes of shareholders, the probability of a continued growth trajectory is great enough to prevent the P/S from pulling back. Unless the recent medium-term conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider and we've discovered 4 warning signs for Kiu Hung International Holdings (3 make us uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.