Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 16% in the last month. But that is small recompense for the exasperating returns over three years. Tragically, the share price declined 59% in that time. Some might say the recent bounce is to be expected after such a bad drop. The rise has some hopeful, but turnarounds are often precarious.
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.
View our latest analysis for Guardant Health
Given that Guardant Health 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. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.
In the last three years, Guardant Health saw its revenue grow by 25% per year, compound. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. The share price has moved in quite the opposite direction, down 17% over that time, a bad result. This could mean hype has come out of the stock because the losses are concerning investors. But a share price drop of that magnitude could well signal that the market is overly negative on the stock.
The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. You can see what analysts are predicting for Guardant Health in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.
A Different Perspective
Guardant Health shareholders are down 50% for the year, falling short of the market return. Meanwhile, the broader market slid about 7.7%, likely weighing on the stock. The three-year loss of 17% 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. Although Baron Rothschild famously said to "buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own", he also focusses on high quality stocks with solid prospects. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Guardant Health better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Guardant Health is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...
We will like Guardant Health better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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