You may think that with a price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.4x Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC) is a stock worth checking out, seeing as almost half of all the Machinery companies 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. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

What Does Wabash National's Recent Performance Look Like?

Wabash National hasn't been tracking well recently as its declining revenue compares poorly to other companies, which have seen some growth in their revenues on average. The P/S ratio is probably low because investors think this poor revenue performance isn't going to get any better. If you still like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Wabash National will help you uncover what's on the horizon.

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

In order to justify its P/S ratio, Wabash National would need to produce sluggish growth that's trailing the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 18% decrease to the company's top line. This has soured the latest three-year period, which nevertheless managed to deliver a decent 23% overall rise in revenue. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a good job of growing revenue over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the two analysts covering the company suggest revenue growth is heading into negative territory, declining 9.0% over the next year. That's not great when the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 0.09%.

With this in consideration, we find it intriguing that Wabash National's P/S is closely matching its industry peers. However, shrinking revenues are unlikely to lead to a stable P/S over the longer term. There's potential for the P/S to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its top-line growth.

What We Can Learn From Wabash National's P/S?

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.

As we suspected, our examination of Wabash National's analyst forecasts revealed that its outlook for shrinking revenue is contributing to its low P/S. As other companies in the industry are forecasting revenue growth, Wabash National's poor outlook justifies its low P/S ratio. Unless there's material change, it's hard to envision a situation where the stock price will rise drastically.

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

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.