Whitehaven Coal Limited (ASX:WHC) shareholders that were waiting for something to happen have been dealt a blow with a 29% share price drop in the last month. The drop over the last 30 days has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 11% in that time.

After such a large drop in price, Whitehaven Coal may be sending very bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1.2x, since almost half of all companies in the Oil and Gas industry in Australia have P/S ratios greater than 4.1x and even P/S higher than 66x 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.

See our latest analysis for Whitehaven Coal

What Does Whitehaven Coal's P/S Mean For Shareholders?

Recent times haven't been great for Whitehaven Coal as its revenue has been falling quicker than most other companies. The P/S ratio is probably low because investors think this poor revenue performance isn't going to improve at all. If you still like the company, you'd want its revenue trajectory to turn around before making any decisions. Or at the very least, you'd be hoping the revenue slide doesn't get any worse if your plan is to pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

Keen to find out how analysts think Whitehaven Coal's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

What Are Revenue Growth Metrics Telling Us About The Low P/S?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as depressed as Whitehaven Coal's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the industry decidedly.

Taking a look back first, the company's revenue growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 37%. Even so, admirably revenue has lifted 145% in aggregate from three years ago, notwithstanding the last 12 months. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a very good job of growing revenue over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 18% per annum over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 622% each year growth forecast for the broader industry.

With this in consideration, its clear as to why Whitehaven Coal's P/S is falling short industry peers. 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 Whitehaven Coal's P/S

Having almost fallen off a cliff, Whitehaven Coal's share price has pulled its P/S way down as well. Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-sales ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.

As we suspected, our examination of Whitehaven Coal's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior revenue outlook is contributing to its low P/S. Shareholders' pessimism on the revenue prospects for the company seems to be the main contributor to the depressed P/S. 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 3 warning signs for Whitehaven Coal that you need to take into consideration.

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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