essensys (LON:ESYS) investors are sitting on a loss of 76% if they invested a year ago

Even the best investor on earth makes unsuccessful investments. But it should be a priority to avoid stomach churning catastrophes, wherever possible. So we hope that those who held essensys plc (LON:ESYS) during the last year don't lose the lesson, in addition to the 76% hit to the value of their shares. A loss like this is a stark reminder that portfolio diversification is important. Notably, shareholders had a tough run over the longer term, too, with a drop of 57% in the last three years. Even worse, it's down 12% in about a month, which isn't fun at all. But this could be related to poor market conditions -- stocks are down 7.4% in the same time.

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 essensys

essensys 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 fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

essensys grew its revenue by 2.9% over the last year. That's not a very high growth rate considering it doesn't make profits. Even so you could argue that it's surprising that the share price has tanked 76%. Clearly the market was expecting better, and this may blow out projections of profitability. But if it will make money, albeit later than previously believed, this could be an opportunity.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on essensys

A Different Perspective

The last twelve months weren't great for essensys shares, which performed worse than the market, costing holders 76%. Meanwhile, the broader market slid about 7.5%, likely weighing on the stock. The three-year loss of 16% 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. 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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 5 warning signs for essensys (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on GB 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.