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If you love investing in stocks you're bound to buy some losers. But the last three years have been particularly tough on longer term Opera Limited (NASDAQ:OPRA) shareholders. Regrettably, they have had to cope with a 66% drop in the share price over that period. And the ride hasn't got any smoother in recent times over the last year, with the price 53% lower in that time. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 13% in the last three months. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.
So let's have a look and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.
See our latest analysis for Opera
Opera isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. 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.
Over the last three years, Opera's revenue dropped 0.4% per year. That is not a good result. With revenue in decline, and profit but a dream, we can understand why the share price has been declining at 18% per year. Of course, it's the future that will determine whether today's price is a good one. We'd be pretty wary of this one until it makes a profit, because we don't specialize in finding turnaround situations.
The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.
A Different Perspective
The last twelve months weren't great for Opera shares, which performed worse than the market, costing holders 53%. The market shed around 17%, no doubt weighing on the stock price. The three-year loss of 18% per year isn't as bad as the last twelve months, suggesting that the company has not been able to convince the market it has solved its problems. We would be wary of buying into a company with unsolved problems, although some investors will buy into struggling stocks if they believe the price is sufficiently attractive. You might want to assess this data-rich visualization of its earnings, revenue and cash flow.
But note: Opera may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).