The FreightCar America, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAIL) share price has softened a substantial 27% over the previous 30 days, handing back much of the gains the stock has made lately. Regardless, last month's decline is barely a blip on the stock's price chart as it has gained a monstrous 306% in the last year.

Since its price has dipped substantially, FreightCar America may be sending buy signals at present with its price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.3x, considering almost half of all companies in the Machinery industry in the United States have P/S ratios greater than 1.6x and even P/S higher than 4x aren't out of the ordinary. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

Check out our latest analysis for FreightCar America

How FreightCar America Has Been Performing

FreightCar America certainly has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing revenue more than most other companies. It might be that many expect the strong revenue performance to degrade substantially, which has repressed the share price, and thus the P/S ratio. If the company manages to stay the course, then investors should be rewarded with a share price that matches its revenue figures.

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

Is There Any Revenue Growth Forecasted For FreightCar America?

FreightCar America's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew revenue by an impressive 52% last year. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 191% overall rise in revenue, aided by its short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 4.8% per year during the coming three years according to the two analysts following the company. That's shaping up to be similar to the 3.4% each year growth forecast for the broader industry.

In light of this, it's peculiar that FreightCar America's P/S sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently some shareholders are doubtful of the forecasts and have been accepting lower selling prices.

What We Can Learn From FreightCar America's P/S?

FreightCar America's recently weak share price has pulled its P/S back below other Machinery companies. 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.

We've seen that FreightCar America currently trades on a lower than expected P/S since its forecast growth is in line with the wider industry. Despite average revenue growth estimates, there could be some unobserved threats keeping the P/S low. At least the risk of a price drop looks to be subdued, but investors seem to think future revenue could see some volatility.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider and we've discovered 3 warning signs for FreightCar America (1 is a bit unpleasant!) 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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