With a median price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of close to 1.4x in the Professional Services industry in the United States, you could be forgiven for feeling indifferent about Alight, Inc.'s (NYSE:ALIT) P/S ratio of 1.1x. Although, it's not wise to simply ignore the P/S without explanation as investors may be disregarding a distinct opportunity or a costly mistake.

Check out our latest analysis for Alight

What Does Alight's P/S Mean For Shareholders?

Alight certainly has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing revenue more than most other companies. Perhaps the market is expecting this level of performance to taper off, keeping the P/S from soaring. 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 not quite in favour.

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

Is There Some Revenue Growth Forecasted For Alight?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should be matching the industry for P/S ratios like Alight's to be considered reasonable.

If we review the last year of revenue growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 27%. The latest three year period has also seen a 21% overall rise in revenue, aided extensively by its short-term performance. 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 year should bring diminished returns, with revenue decreasing 29% as estimated by the eight analysts watching the company. Meanwhile, the broader industry is forecast to expand by 7.1%, which paints a poor picture.

With this in consideration, we think it doesn't make sense that Alight's P/S is closely matching its industry peers. It seems most investors are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects, but the analyst cohort is not so confident this will happen. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as these declining revenues are likely to weigh on the share price eventually.

The Bottom Line On Alight's P/S

It's argued the price-to-sales ratio is an inferior measure of value within certain industries, but it can be a powerful business sentiment indicator.

While Alight's P/S isn't anything out of the ordinary for companies in the industry, we didn't expect it given forecasts of revenue decline. When we see a gloomy outlook like this, our immediate thoughts are that the share price is at risk of declining, negatively impacting P/S. If the declining revenues were to materialize in the form of a declining share price, shareholders will be feeling the pinch.

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

Of course, profitable companies with a history of great earnings growth are generally safer bets. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have reasonable P/E ratios and have grown earnings strongly.

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