Unfortunately for some shareholders, the Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKTS) share price has dived 42% in the last thirty days, prolonging recent pain. For any long-term shareholders, the last month ends a year to forget by locking in a 89% share price decline.

Following the heavy fall in price, Akoustis Technologies' price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 1x might make it look like a buy right now compared to the Electronic industry in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 1.7x and even P/S above 5x are quite common. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

How Akoustis Technologies Has Been Performing

Recent times have been pleasing for Akoustis Technologies as its revenue has risen in spite of the industry's average revenue going into reverse. Perhaps the market is expecting future revenue performance to follow the rest of the industry downwards, which has kept the P/S suppressed. If you 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.

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

Akoustis Technologies' P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's only expected to deliver limited growth, and importantly, perform worse than the industry.

Taking a look back first, we see that the company grew revenue by an impressive 24% last year. The latest three year period has also seen an incredible overall rise in revenue, aided by its incredible short-term performance. So we can start by confirming that the company has done a tremendous job of growing revenue over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the three analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 45% over the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to only expand by 6.0%, which is noticeably less attractive.

In light of this, it's peculiar that Akoustis Technologies' P/S sits below the majority of other companies. Apparently some shareholders are doubtful of the forecasts and have been accepting significantly lower selling prices.

What We Can Learn From Akoustis Technologies' P/S?

The southerly movements of Akoustis Technologies' shares means its P/S is now sitting at a pretty low level. 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.

A look at Akoustis Technologies' revenues reveals that, despite glowing future growth forecasts, its P/S is much lower than we'd expect. When we see strong growth forecasts like this, we can only assume potential risks are what might be placing significant pressure on the P/S ratio. While the possibility of the share price plunging seems unlikely due to the high growth forecasted for the company, the market does appear to have some hesitation.

Plus, you should also learn about these 5 warning signs we've spotted with Akoustis Technologies (including 2 which are concerning).

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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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.