Every investor on earth makes bad calls sometimes. But you have a problem if you face massive losses more than once in a while. So spare a thought for the long term shareholders of Quotient Technology Inc. (NYSE:QUOT); the share price is down a whopping 72% in the last three years. That might cause some serious doubts about the merits of the initial decision to buy the stock, to put it mildly. And over the last year the share price fell 71%, so we doubt many shareholders are delighted. Furthermore, it's down 51% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

With the stock having lost 19% in the past week, it's worth taking a look at business performance and seeing if there's any red flags.

View our latest analysis for Quotient Technology

Given that Quotient Technology didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last three years, Quotient Technology saw its revenue grow by 8.3% per year, compound. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. So it seems unlikely the 20% share price drop (each year) is entirely about the revenue. It could be that the losses were much larger than expected. If you buy into companies that lose money then you always risk losing money yourself. Just don't lose the lesson.

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

It's good to see that there was some significant insider buying in the last three months. That's a positive. On the other hand, we think the revenue and earnings trends are much more meaningful measures of the business. You can see what analysts are predicting for Quotient Technology in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 20% in the twelve months, Quotient Technology shareholders did even worse, losing 71%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 11% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Quotient Technology .