
Price to Sales = Price (or Market Cap) / Sales per share (or total sales) Total Sales can be found at the top line of the income statement of a company. Number of shares outstanding is also available in the income statement or notes to accounts of an annual report.
What is the price-to-sales ratio of a stock?
The price-to-sales (P/S) ratio shows how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of sales for a stock. The P/S ratio is calculated by dividing the stock price by the underlying company's sales per share. A low ratio could imply the stock is undervalued, while a ratio that is higher-than-average could indicate that the stock is overvalued.
How to calculate the price/sales ratio of a company?
The P/S ratio can be calculated either by dividing the company’s market capitalization by its total sales over a designated period – usually twelve months, or on a per-share basis by dividing the stock price by sales per share.
How do you calculate a sell price for a stock?
Calculating a sell price for stock is more art than science, but any science helps. The price-earnings ratio, which is used by stockbrokers and financial analysts to find the best stock to buy or sell, can also be used to compare a stock price to its intrinsic value.
What is a stock and how does it work?
What is a stock? A single share of a company represents a small ownership stake in the business. As a stockholder, your percentage of ownership of the company is determined by dividing the number of shares you own by the total number of shares outstanding and then multiplying that amount by 100.

What is the sales price of a stock?
Sale Price means the value as determined by the Administrator of the consideration payable, or otherwise to be received by stockholders, per share of Stock pursuant to a Sale Event. Common Share means one share of the common stock of the Company.
How do you calculate the selling price of a stock?
How to Calculate Selling Price Per UnitDetermine the total cost of all units purchased.Divide the total cost by the number of units purchased to get the cost price.Use the selling price formula to calculate the final price: Selling Price = Cost Price + Profit Margin.
What is PSR in stock?
Price–sales ratio, P/S ratio, or PSR, is a valuation metric for stocks. It is calculated by dividing the company's market capitalization by the revenue in the most recent year; or, equivalently, divide the per-share stock price by the per-share revenue.
What does price to sales tell you?
Key Takeaways. The price-to-sales (P/S) ratio shows how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of sales for a stock. The P/S ratio is calculated by dividing the stock price by the underlying company's sales per share.
What is a good PE ratio?
So, what is a good PE ratio for a stock? A “good” P/E ratio isn't necessarily a high ratio or a low ratio on its own. The market average P/E ratio currently ranges from 20-25, so a higher PE above that could be considered bad, while a lower PE ratio could be considered better.
What is PE and PS?
Market participants frequently talks about Price earnings ratio famously referred as “PE ratio”. However, there are times when Price to sales ratio known as “PS ratio” becomes more important and relevant.
What is a good PB ratio?
The price-to-book (P/B) ratio has been favored by value investors for decades and is widely used by market analysts. Traditionally, any value under 1.0 is considered a good P/B value, indicating a potentially undervalued stock. However, value investors often consider stocks with a P/B value under 3.0.
How do you know if a stock is undervalued?
Price-to-book ratio (P/B) To calculate it, divide the market price per share by the book value per share. A stock could be undervalued if the P/B ratio is lower than 1. P/B ratio example: ABC's shares are selling for $50 a share, and its book value is $70, which means the P/B ratio is 0.71 ($50/$70).
Is a low PE ratio good?
P/E ratio, or price-to-earnings ratio, is a quick way to see if a stock is undervalued or overvalued. And so generally speaking, the lower the P/E ratio is, the better it is for both the business and potential investors. The metric is the stock price of a company divided by its earnings per share.
What is the price to sales ratio?
The ratio describes how much someone must pay to buy one share of a company relative to how much that share generates in revenue for the company.
How much was Amazon's market cap in 2003?
On January 1, 2003, Amazon's market capitalization (the sum of the price of all its outstanding shares) was $7.3 billion. Its trailing 12-month revenue was $3.9 billion. Divide $7.3 billion by $3.9 billion and you get about 1.8, which was Amazon's P/S ratio at the time.
What is P/S ratio?
The P/S ratio is an investment valuation ratio that shows a company's market capitalization divided by the company's sales for the previous 12 months. It is a measure of the value investors are receiving from a company's stock by indicating how much are they are paying for the stock per dollar of the company's sales. Analysts prefer to see a lower number for the ratio. A ratio of less than 1 indicates that investors are paying less than $1 per $1 of the company's sales. Any number higher than 4 is commonly considered unfavorable.
Why is P/S ratio important?
The P/S ratio is considered a particularly good metric for evaluating young, potential high-growth companies or companies in cyclical industries that may not show an actual net profit every year. The P/S ratio provides a financial evaluation measure that can provide a good basis for analyzing such companies that may be showing temporary negative ...
What does it mean when a ratio is less than 1?
A ratio of less than 1 indicates that investors are paying less than $1 per $1 of the company's sales. Any number higher than 4 is commonly considered unfavorable.
Is P/S ratio useful?
This is not to say that the P/S ratio is not useful in analyzing currently profitable companies. It is a particularly helpful metric for examining companies that are not showing profitability at the moment or that are showing only minimal profits.
How to understand price to sales ratio?
The price to sales ratio is one of the easiest ways to understand the valuation of a company, as it helps investors know how much they are truly paying for the company. The main operation in any business is to generate revenue from the sale of goods and services#N#Products and Services A product is a tangible item that is put on the market for acquisition, attention, or consumption while a service is an intangible item, which arises from#N#, and the P/S ratio provides the valuation based on the operations of the company without any accounting adjustments.
How to calculate revenue?
Revenue (also referred to as Sales or Income) generated by the business. It is calculated by dividing the share price by the sales per share.
Who developed the P/S ratio?
The P/S ratio was developed by stock market expert Kenneth L. Fisher. Fisher noticed that when a company experiences a period of early growth, investors place an unrealistic valuation on the company. When the value of the company drops below their expectations, the investors panic and sell the stock.
What is the book value of a stock?
Price is the company's stock price and book refers to the company's book value per share. A company's book value is equal to its assets minus its liabilities (asset and liability numbers are found on companies' balance sheets). A company's book value per share is simply equal to the company's book value divided by the number of outstanding shares. ...
How to value a stock?
The most common way to value a stock is to compute the company's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio . The P/E ratio equals the company's stock price divided by its most recently reported earnings per share (EPS). A low P/E ratio implies that an investor buying the stock is receiving an attractive amount of value.
What is GAAP earnings?
GAAP is shorthand for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and a company's GAAP earnings are those reported in compliance with them. A company's GAAP earnings are the amount of profit it generates on an unadjusted basis, meaning without regard for one-off or unusual events such as business unit purchases or tax incentives received. Most financial websites report P/E ratios that use GAAP-compliant earnings numbers.
Why do investors assign value to stocks?
Investors assign values to stocks because it helps them decide if they want to buy them, but there is not just one way to value a stock.
How to find Walmart's P/E ratio?
To obtain Walmart's P/E ratio, simply divide the company's stock price by its EPS. Dividing $139.78 by $4.75 produces a P/E ratio of 29.43 for the retail giant.
What is a single share of a company?
A single share of a company represents a small ownership stake in the business. As a stockholder, your percentage of ownership of the company is determined by dividing the number of shares you own by the total number of shares outstanding and then multiplying that amount by 100. Owning stock in a company generally confers to ...
What is value trap?
These types of stocks are known as value traps. A value trap may take the form of the stock of a pharmaceutical company with a valuable patent that soon expires, a cyclical stock at the peak of the cycle, or the stock of a tech company whose once-innovative offering is being commoditized.
Market Versus Intrinsic Value
The intrinsic value of a 1925 Liberty Peace silver dollar is $1, but the market value can be $25 to $300, depending on where it was minted. Stocks operate in much the same way, so stockbrokers and financial analysts are constantly looking for deals based on this intrinsic value.
Price-Earnings Ratio Example
The P/E ratio is calculated by dividing the price of the stock by its annual earnings. For example, if the price of stock is $50 and it earned $5 per share, the P/E ratio is $50 divided by $5, which equals 10, or a price-earnings ratio of 10-to-1.
Calculating the Sell Price
Assume you purchased the financial services stock with a P/E ratio of 3, and now you want to calculate the best price to sell. You need to back into the price using the industry ratio as a threshold. In this case, that threshold is 10, and earnings per share have been at $1.
Examples of Total Sales in a sentence
Annual Value of Total Sales for the last 3 Years: Year : USD million Year : USD million Year : USD million20.
More Definitions of Total Sales
Total Sales means the cumulative sum of NET SALES of LICENSED PRODUCTS by LICENSEE plus net sales of LICENSED PRODUCTS by its sublicensees from the EFFECTIVE DATE.
Why do businesses set their price at $100?
The business may decide to set their price at $100 to position themselves as a premium retailer. They may set the price at $50 to be a value retailer or come in with a price equal to that of the market. It depends on what the business thinks is the best and most profitable route.
What happens when a company is mainly built on one product?
When a company is mainly built on one product, the investment community will monitor the average selling price of that product. A drop in price can point to rising competition, lower pricing power with their customers, or a decrease in demand, which can lead to failure.
Why is it important to enter at a premium price?
Entering at a premium price may lead to higher margins, but lower sales numbers. 2. Trends and decision-making. For companies currently in the market with a specific product or service, they can use the average selling price to identify trends and make decisions.
What is earnings call?
Generally, the earnings call is accompanied by an official press release. . Analysts and investors will look at the trend of a company’s average selling price and draw conclusions from it. The price of a product will depend on the type of product and where the product is in its product cycle.
How to calculate ASP?
ASP is simply calculated by dividing the total revenue earned by the total number of units sold. The average selling price can be used as a benchmark and analyzed by current businesses, new businesses, analysts, and investors.

What Is The Price-to-Sales (P/S) Ratio?
Understanding Price-to-Sales (P/S) Ratio
- The P/S ratio is a key analysis and valuation tool for investors and analysts. The ratio shows how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of sales. It can be calculated either by dividing the company’s market capitalization by its total sales over a designated period (usually twelve months) or on a per-share basis by dividing the stock price by sales per share. The P/S ratio is al…
Examples of The Price-to-Sales (P/S) Ratio
- As an example, consider the quarterly sales for Acme Co. shown in the table below. The sales for fiscal year 1 (FY1) are actual sales, while sales for FY2 are analysts’ average forecasts(assume that we are currently in the first quarter or Q1 of FY2). Acme has 100 million shares outstanding, with the shares presently trading at $10 per share. At the present time, Acme’s P/S ratio on a trai…
Origin of The Price to Sales Ratio
- The P/S ratio was developed by stock market expertKenneth L. Fisher. Fisher noticed that when a company experiences a period of early growth, investors place an unrealistic valuation on the company. When the value of the company drops below their expectations, the investors panic and sell the stock. Fisher believed that a company with strong management should be able to identif…
Breaking Down The Price to Sales Ratio
- The price to sales ratio is one of the easiest ways to understand the valuation of a company, as it helps investors know how much they are truly paying for the company. The main operation in any business is to generate revenue from the sale of goods and services, and the P/S ratio provides the valuation based on the operations of the company without any accounting adjustments. Th…
Formula For The Price to Sales Ratio
- The formula for the price to sales ratio is: The total sales value can be found on the income statement, while the total number of shares outstanding is also available on the income statement or in the notes section of the same document. The sales figure in the formula can be from either of the following time periods: 1. Last twelve months 2. Next ...
Numerical Example
- The table above indicates the share price and the sales per share for a toy company. The price to earnings ratio is calculated as well (10/8 = 1.25). The company’s share price increased by 50% over three years while the sales per share rose at a slower pace. It essentially means that the investors are paying more for the shares now than they were three years ago. When we look at t…
Limitations of The Price to Sales Ratio
- The price to earnings ratio comes with its limitations. For example, the P/S ratio is different across many industries, and it is often hard to compare companies in various sectors. The ratio cannot differentiate a leveraged company from an unleveraged one as a company can report a low P/S ratio and can be close to bankruptcy. Also, the P/S ratio does not provide any informatio…
More Resources
- Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to Price to Sales Ratio. To keep advancing your career, the additional resources below will be useful: 1. Financial Analysis Ratios Glossary 2. P/E Ratio 3. Price-to-Cash Flow Ratio 4. Valuation Methods