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 when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. To wit, the Tesserent Limited (ASX:TNT) share price has flown 173% in the last three years. That sort of return is as solid as granite.
So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 3 years and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.
See our latest analysis for Tesserent
Tesserent 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. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.
Tesserent's revenue trended up 88% each year over three years. That's well above most pre-profit companies. Meanwhile, the share price performance has been pretty solid at 40% compound over three years. But it does seem like the market is paying attention to strong revenue growth. That's not to say we think the share price is too high. In fact, it might be worth keeping an eye on this one.
The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
This free interactive report on Tesserent's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
A Different Perspective
We regret to report that Tesserent shareholders are down 59% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 3.0%. 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. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 9%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Tesserent you should be aware of.
If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can grow earnings.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges.