Beonic Limited (ASX:BEO) shareholders are no doubt pleased to see that the share price has bounced 33% in the last month, although it is still struggling to make up recently lost ground. Not all shareholders will be feeling jubilant, since the share price is still down a very disappointing 13% in the last twelve months.

In spite of the firm bounce in price, Beonic may still be sending very bullish signals at the moment with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.7x, since almost half of all companies in the Software industry in Australia have P/S ratios greater than 2.8x and even P/S higher than 7x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly reduced P/S.

Check out our latest analysis for Beonic

How Beonic Has Been Performing

It looks like revenue growth has deserted Beonic recently, which is not something to boast about. It might be that many expect the uninspiring revenue performance to worsen, which has repressed the P/S. If not, then existing shareholders may be feeling optimistic about the future direction of the share price.

Want the full picture on earnings, revenue and cash flow for the company? Then our free report on Beonic will help you shine a light on its historical performance.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

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

If we review the last year of revenue, the company posted a result that saw barely any deviation from a year ago. Still, the latest three year period has seen an excellent 50% overall rise in revenue, in spite of its uninspiring short-term performance. Therefore, it's fair to say the revenue growth recently has been great for the company, but investors will want to ask why it has slowed to such an extent.

Comparing the recent medium-term revenue trends against the industry's one-year growth forecast of 23% shows it's noticeably less attractive.

With this in consideration, it's easy to understand why Beonic's P/S falls short of the mark set by its industry peers. 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 Beonic's P/S

Even after such a strong price move, Beonic's P/S still trails the rest of the industry. 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, Beonic 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.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider and we've discovered 4 warning signs for Beonic (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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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