Risks Still Elevated At These Prices As Touyun Biotech Group Limited (HKG:1332) Shares Dive 49%

Touyun Biotech Group Limited (HKG:1332) shareholders that were waiting for something to happen have been dealt a blow with a 49% share price drop in the last month. For any long-term shareholders, the last month ends a year to forget by locking in a 58% share price decline.

Even after such a large drop in price, when almost half of the companies in Hong Kong's Packaging industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 0.5x, you may still consider Touyun Biotech Group as a stock probably not worth researching with its 1.6x P/S ratio. However, the P/S might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

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Check out our latest analysis for Touyun Biotech Group

How Has Touyun Biotech Group Performed Recently?

For example, consider that Touyun Biotech Group's financial performance has been poor lately as its revenue has been in decline. One possibility is that the P/S is high because investors think the company will still do enough to outperform the broader industry in the near future. If not, then existing shareholders may be quite nervous about the viability of the share price.

Is There Enough Revenue Growth Forecasted For Touyun Biotech Group?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should outperform the industry for P/S ratios like Touyun Biotech Group's 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 19%. As a result, revenue from three years ago have also fallen 44% overall. 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 26% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this in mind, we find it worrying that Touyun Biotech Group's P/S exceeds that of its industry peers. Apparently many investors in the company are way more bullish than recent times would indicate and aren't willing to let go of their stock at any price. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as a continuation of recent revenue trends is likely to weigh heavily on the share price eventually.

What Does Touyun Biotech Group's P/S Mean For Investors?

Despite the recent share price weakness, Touyun Biotech Group's P/S remains higher than most other companies in the industry. 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.

We've established that Touyun Biotech Group currently trades on a much higher than expected P/S since its recent revenues have been in decline over the medium-term. When we see revenue heading backwards and underperforming the industry forecasts, we feel the possibility of the share price declining is very real, bringing the P/S back into the realm of reasonability. Unless the the circumstances surrounding the recent medium-term improve, it wouldn't be wrong to expect a a difficult period ahead for the company's shareholders.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 4 warning signs for Touyun Biotech Group (2 shouldn't be ignored!) that we have uncovered.

If you're unsure about the strength of Touyun Biotech Group's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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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.