Carvana Co.'s (NYSE:CVNA) price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 2.2x may not look like an appealing investment opportunity when you consider close to half the companies in the Specialty Retail industry in the United States have P/S ratios below 0.4x. However, the P/S might be high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

See our latest analysis for Carvana

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

Recent times have been advantageous for Carvana as its revenues have been rising faster than most other companies. It seems that many are expecting the strong revenue performance to persist, which has raised the P/S. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

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

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The High P/S Ratio?

Carvana's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver solid growth, and importantly, perform better than the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 12% gain to the company's revenues. The latest three year period has also seen a 15% overall rise in revenue, aided somewhat 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.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 18% per year during the coming three years according to the analysts following the company. With the industry only predicted to deliver 5.4% each year, the company is positioned for a stronger revenue result.

In light of this, it's understandable that Carvana's P/S sits above the majority of other companies. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

The Key Takeaway

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.

As we suspected, our examination of Carvana's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior revenue outlook is contributing to its high P/S. It appears that shareholders are confident in the company's future revenues, which is propping up the P/S. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

And what about other risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Carvana (of which 1 can't be ignored!) you should know about.

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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