It might seem bad, but the worst that can happen when you buy a stock (without leverage) is that its share price goes to zero. But if you buy shares in a really great company, you can more than double your money. To wit, the Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXSM) share price has flown 184% in the last three years. How nice for those who held the stock! Meanwhile the share price is 5.5% higher than it was a week ago.

After a strong gain in the past week, it's worth seeing if longer term returns have been driven by improving fundamentals.

See our latest analysis for Axsome Therapeutics

Because Axsome Therapeutics made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last 3 years Axsome Therapeutics saw its revenue grow at 93% per year. That's well above most pre-profit companies. Along the way, the share price gained 42% per year, a solid pop by our standards. But it does seem like the market is paying attention to strong revenue growth. Nonetheless, we'd say Axsome Therapeutics is still worth investigating - successful businesses can often keep growing for long periods.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Axsome Therapeutics is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. If you are thinking of buying or selling Axsome Therapeutics stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst consensus estimates for future profits.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Axsome Therapeutics shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 47% over the last year. That's better than the annualised return of 20% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Axsome Therapeutics you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.