Taking the occasional loss comes part and parcel with investing on the stock market. And there's no doubt that Plenti Group Limited (ASX:PLT) stock has had a really bad year. To wit the share price is down 62% in that time. Plenti Group may have better days ahead, of course; we've only looked at a one year period. More recently, the share price has dropped a further 28% in a month.

Since shareholders are down over the longer term, lets look at the underlying fundamentals over the that time and see if they've been consistent with returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Plenti Group

Plenti Group isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

In the last year Plenti Group saw its revenue grow by 51%. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. In contrast the share price is down 62% over twelve months. Yes, the market can be a fickle mistress. Typically a growth stock like this will be volatile, with some shareholders concerned about the red ink on the bottom line (that is, the losses). We'd definitely consider it a positive if the company is trending towards profitability. If you can see that happening, then perhaps consider adding this stock to your watchlist.

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

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Plenti Group will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

A Different Perspective

Plenti Group shareholders are down 62% for the year, even worse than the market loss of 2.8%. That's disappointing, but it's worth keeping in mind that the market-wide selling wouldn't have helped. The share price decline has continued throughout the most recent three months, down 18%, suggesting an absence of enthusiasm from investors. Basically, most investors should be wary of buying into a poor-performing stock, unless the business itself has clearly improved. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Plenti Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Plenti Group has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.