China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings Limited (HKG:1237) Shares Fly 26% But Investors Aren't Buying For Growth

China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings Limited (HKG:1237) shares have continued their recent momentum with a 26% gain in the last month alone. Looking back a bit further, it's encouraging to see the stock is up 48% in the last year.

Although its price has surged higher, it would still be understandable if you think China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings is a stock with good investment prospects with a price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") of 0.1x, considering almost half the companies in Hong Kong's Leisure industry have P/S ratios above 0.7x. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

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View our latest analysis for China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings

What Does China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings' P/S Mean For Shareholders?

Recent times have been quite advantageous for China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings as its revenue has been rising very briskly. It might be that many expect the strong revenue performance to degrade substantially, which has repressed the P/S ratio. If you 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.

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

China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings' P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the industry.

If we review the last year of revenue growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 38%. However, this wasn't enough as the latest three year period has seen the company endure a nasty 33% drop in revenue in aggregate. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of revenue growth.

Comparing that to the industry, which is predicted to deliver 7.8% growth in the next 12 months, the company's downward momentum based on recent medium-term revenue results is a sobering picture.

With this in mind, we understand why China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings' P/S is lower than most of its industry peers. Nonetheless, there's no guarantee the P/S has reached a floor yet with revenue going in reverse. There's potential for the P/S to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its top-line growth.

The Final Word

Despite China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings' share price climbing recently, its P/S still lags most other companies. 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.

As we suspected, our examination of China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings revealed its shrinking revenue over the medium-term is contributing to its low P/S, given the industry is set to grow. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/S as they concede future revenue probably won't provide any pleasant surprises either. If recent medium-term revenue trends continue, it's hard to see the share price moving strongly in either direction in the near future under these circumstances.

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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.