Price-to-sales ratio, P/S ratio, or PSR, is a valuation metric for stocks. It is calculated by dividing the company's market cap by the company's revenue in the most recent fiscal year (or the most recent four fiscal quarters); or, equivalently, divide the per-share stock price by the per-share revenue.
The metric can be used to determine the value of a stock relative to its past performance. It may also be used to determine relative valuation of a sector or the market as a whole.
PSRs vary greatly from sector to sector, so they are most useful in comparing similar stocks within a sector or sub-sector.
Investors should exercise caution when utilizing price-to-sales ratios since the numerator, the price of equity, takes a firm's leverage into account, whereas the denominator, sales, does not. Comparing P/S ratios carries the implicit assumption that all firms in the comparison have an identical capital structure. This is always a problematic assumption, but even more so when the assumption is made between industries, since industries often have vastly different typical capital structures (for example, a utility vs. a technology company). This is the reason why P/S ratios across industries vary widely.
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