You may think that with a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1.6x Prophecy International Holdings Limited (ASX:PRO) is a stock worth checking out, seeing as almost half of all the Software companies in Australia have P/S ratios greater than 2.8x and even P/S higher than 7x aren't out of the ordinary. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/S at face value as there may be an explanation why it's limited.

See our latest analysis for Prophecy International Holdings

How Prophecy International Holdings Has Been Performing

It looks like revenue growth has deserted Prophecy International Holdings recently, which is not something to boast about. One possibility is that the P/S is low because investors think this benign revenue growth rate will likely underperform the broader industry in the near future. 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.

Although there are no analyst estimates available for Prophecy International Holdings, take a look at this free data-rich visualisation to see how the company stacks up on earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as low as Prophecy International Holdings' is when the company's growth is on track to lag the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that there was hardly any revenue growth to speak of for the company over the past year. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 64% overall rise in revenue, in spite of its uninspiring short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders will be pleased, but also have some questions to ponder about the last 12 months.

This is in contrast to the rest of the industry, which is expected to grow by 21% over the next year, materially higher than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

With this information, we can see why Prophecy International Holdings is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. It seems most investors are expecting to see the recent limited growth rates continue into the future and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Bottom Line On Prophecy International Holdings' 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.

In line with expectations, Prophecy International Holdings maintains its low P/S on the weakness of its recent three-year growth being lower than the wider industry forecast. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. Unless the recent medium-term conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

Plus, you should also learn about this 1 warning sign we've spotted with Prophecy International Holdings.

If companies with solid past earnings growth is up your alley, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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