When you see that almost half of the companies in the Electronic industry in the United States have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 2.1x, PowerFleet, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIOT) looks to be giving off some sell signals with its 4x P/S ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the elevated P/S.

Check out our latest analysis for PowerFleet

What Does PowerFleet's Recent Performance Look Like?

Recent times have been advantageous for PowerFleet as its revenues have been rising faster than most other companies. It seems the market expects this form will continue into the future, hence the elevated P/S ratio. However, if this isn't the case, investors might get caught out paying too much for the stock.

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

How Is PowerFleet's Revenue Growth Trending?

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

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew revenue by an impressive 35% last year. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 49% overall rise in revenue, aided 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 108% over the next year. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 9.0% growth forecast for the broader industry.

With this information, we can see why PowerFleet is trading at such a high P/S compared to the industry. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

The Bottom Line On PowerFleet's P/S

We'd say the price-to-sales ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

We've established that PowerFleet maintains its high P/S on the strength of its forecasted revenue growth being higher than the the rest of the Electronic industry, as expected. At this stage investors feel the potential for a deterioration in revenues is quite remote, justifying the elevated P/S ratio. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Having said that, be aware PowerFleet is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis, you should know about.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So if growing profitability aligns with your idea of a great company, take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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