It's not a stretch to say that Guangshen Railway Company Limited's (HKG:525) price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.5x right now seems quite "middle-of-the-road" for companies in the Transportation industry in Hong Kong, where the median P/S ratio is around 0.7x. However, investors might be overlooking a clear opportunity or potential setback if there is no rational basis for the P/S.

Check out our latest analysis for Guangshen Railway

How Has Guangshen Railway Performed Recently?

Recent revenue growth for Guangshen Railway has been in line with the industry. Perhaps the market is expecting future revenue performance to show no drastic signs of changing, justifying the P/S being at current levels. Those who are bullish on Guangshen Railway will be hoping that revenue performance can pick up, so that they can pick up the stock at a slightly lower valuation.

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Is There Some Revenue Growth Forecasted For Guangshen Railway?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should be matching the industry for P/S ratios like Guangshen Railway's to be considered reasonable.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a decent 13% gain to the company's revenues. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 37% overall rise in revenue, aided somewhat by its short-term performance. Accordingly, shareholders would have definitely welcomed those medium-term rates of revenue growth.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the five analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 4.1% over the next year. With the industry predicted to deliver 4.7% growth , the company is positioned for a comparable revenue result.

With this in mind, it makes sense that Guangshen Railway's P/S is closely matching its industry peers. It seems most investors are expecting to see average future growth and are only willing to pay a moderate amount for the stock.

What Does Guangshen Railway's P/S Mean For Investors?

While the price-to-sales ratio shouldn't be the defining factor in whether you buy a stock or not, it's quite a capable barometer of revenue expectations.

We've seen that Guangshen Railway maintains an adequate P/S seeing as its revenue growth figures match the rest of the industry. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement or deterioration in revenue isn't great enough to push P/S in a higher or lower direction. If all things remain constant, the possibility of a drastic share price movement remains fairly remote.

Plus, you should also learn about this 1 warning sign we've spotted with Guangshen Railway.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Guangshen Railway, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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