When close to half the companies in the Healthcare industry in the United States have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 1.2x, you may consider Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACHC) as a stock to potentially avoid with its 2.3x 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.

How Acadia Healthcare Company Has Been Performing

There hasn't been much to differentiate Acadia Healthcare Company's and the industry's revenue growth lately. One possibility is that the P/S ratio is high because investors think this modest revenue performance will accelerate. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

Is There Enough Revenue Growth Forecasted For Acadia Healthcare Company?

Acadia Healthcare Company's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver solid growth, and importantly, perform better than the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company managed to grow revenues by a handy 12% last year. Pleasingly, revenue has also lifted 40% in aggregate from three years ago, partly thanks to the last 12 months of growth. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a great job of growing revenues over that time.

Looking ahead now, revenue is anticipated to climb by 9.8% per annum during the coming three years according to the twelve analysts following the company. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to only expand by 7.7% per year, which is noticeably less attractive.

With this in mind, it's not hard to understand why Acadia Healthcare Company's P/S is high relative to its industry peers. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

The Key Takeaway

Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-sales ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

Our look into Acadia Healthcare Company shows that its P/S ratio remains high on the merit of its strong future revenues. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/S as they are quite confident future revenues aren't under threat. Unless the analysts have really missed the mark, these strong revenue forecasts should keep the share price buoyant.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 2 warning signs for Acadia Healthcare Company that we have uncovered.

If companies with solid past earnings growth is up your alley, you may wish to see this free collection of other companies with strong earnings growth and low P/E ratios.

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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.