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The simplest way to benefit from a rising market is to buy an index fund. But if you buy individual stocks, you can do both better or worse than that. Investors in The Conygar Investment Company PLC (LON:CIC) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 24%. That falls noticeably short of the market decline of around 0.2%. Longer term shareholders haven't suffered as badly, since the stock is down a comparatively less painful 15% in three years. The last week also saw the share price slip down another 6.0%.
It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.
See our latest analysis for Conygar Investment
Conygar Investment wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.
Conygar Investment grew its revenue by 167% over the last year. That's a strong result which is better than most other loss making companies. The share price drop of 24% over twelve months would be considered disappointing by many, so you might argue the company is getting little credit for its impressive revenue growth. On the bright side, if this company is moving profits in the right direction, top-line growth like that could be an opportunity. Our brains have evolved to think in linear fashion, so there's value in learning to recognize exponential growth. We are, in some ways, simply the wisest of the monkeys.
You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).
This free interactive report on Conygar Investment's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
A Different Perspective
While the broader market gained around 0.2% in the last year, Conygar Investment shareholders lost 24%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 3% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Conygar Investment better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Conygar Investment you should be aware of.