CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX) shares have had a horrible month, losing 27% after a relatively good period beforehand. The recent drop has obliterated the annual return, with the share price now down 2.5% over that longer period.

Following the heavy fall in price, CytomX Therapeutics' price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1.1x might make it look like a strong buy right now compared to the wider Biotechs industry in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 13x and even P/S above 59x are quite common. However, the P/S might be quite low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

What Does CytomX Therapeutics' Recent Performance Look Like?

Recent times haven't been great for CytomX Therapeutics as its revenue has been rising slower than most other companies. The P/S ratio is probably low because investors think this lacklustre revenue performance isn't going to get any better. If you still like the company, you'd be hoping revenue doesn't get any worse and that you could pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

Is There Any Revenue Growth Forecasted For CytomX Therapeutics?

In order to justify its P/S ratio, CytomX Therapeutics would need to produce anemic growth that's substantially trailing the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew revenue by an impressive 90% last year. The latest three year period has also seen an excellent 48% 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.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the six analysts covering the company suggest revenue growth is heading into negative territory, declining 23% each year over the next three years. That's not great when the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 163% each year.

With this information, we are not surprised that CytomX Therapeutics is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. 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.

The Key Takeaway

Shares in CytomX Therapeutics have plummeted and its P/S has followed suit. 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.

With revenue forecasts that are inferior to the rest of the industry, it's no surprise that CytomX Therapeutics' P/S is on the lower end of the spectrum. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. Unless these conditions improve, they will continue to form a barrier for the share price around these levels.

Plus, you should also learn about these 6 warning signs we've spotted with CytomX Therapeutics (including 2 which shouldn't be ignored).

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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