Usio, Inc. (NASDAQ:USIO) shareholders have had their patience rewarded with a 30% share price jump in the last month. Looking further back, the 19% rise over the last twelve months isn't too bad notwithstanding the strength over the last 30 days.

Even after such a large jump in price, Usio may still be sending very bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.6x, since almost half of all companies in the Diversified Financial industry in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 2.7x and even P/S higher than 5x 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 so limited.

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View our latest analysis for Usio

What Does Usio's Recent Performance Look Like?

Usio could be doing better as it's been growing revenue less than most other companies lately. The P/S ratio is probably low because investors think this lacklustre revenue performance isn't going to get any better. 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.

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How Is Usio's Revenue Growth Trending?

Usio's 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.

If we review the last year of revenue, the company posted a result that saw barely any deviation from a year ago. Fortunately, a few good years before that means that it was still able to grow revenue by 26% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

Turning to the outlook, the next year should generate growth of 16% as estimated by the five analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to only expand by 3.1%, which is noticeably less attractive.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Usio's P/S sits below the majority of other companies. It looks like most investors are not convinced at all that the company can achieve future growth expectations.

The Final Word

Shares in Usio have risen appreciably however, its P/S is still subdued. 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.

To us, it seems Usio currently trades on a significantly depressed P/S given its forecasted revenue growth is higher than the rest of its industry. There could be some major risk factors that are placing downward pressure on the P/S ratio. While the possibility of the share price plunging seems unlikely due to the high growth forecasted for the company, the market does appear to have some hesitation.

We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 1 warning sign for Usio that you need to be mindful of.

If you're unsure about the strength of Usio'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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