With a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.2x Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE:BHC) may be sending very bullish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all the Pharmaceuticals companies in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 3.1x and even P/S higher than 14x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/S.

See our latest analysis for Bausch Health Companies

How Bausch Health Companies Has Been Performing

Recent times haven't been great for Bausch Health Companies as its revenue has been rising slower than most other companies. Perhaps the market is expecting the current trend of poor revenue growth to continue, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If you still like the company, you'd be hoping revenue doesn't get any worse and that you could pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Bausch Health Companies.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

Bausch Health Companies' P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling revenue, and importantly, perform much worse than the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company managed to grow revenues by a handy 11% last year. The solid recent performance means it was also able to grow revenue by 12% in total over the last three years. So we can start by confirming that the company has actually done a good job of growing revenue over that time.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 3.6% each year as estimated by the six analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to expand by 24% per year, which is noticeably more attractive.

In light of this, it's understandable that Bausch Health Companies' P/S sits below the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Bottom Line On Bausch Health Companies' P/S

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 Bausch Health Companies maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its forecast growth being lower than the wider industry, as expected. Right now shareholders are accepting the low P/S as they concede future revenue probably won't provide any pleasant surprises. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

It is also worth noting that we have found 1 warning sign for Bausch Health Companies that you need to take into consideration.

If you're unsure about the strength of Bausch Health Companies' 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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