Would Shareholders Who Purchased X Financial's (NYSE:XYF) Stock Year Be Happy With The Share price Today?

It's not a secret that every investor will make bad investments, from time to time. But it would be foolish to simply accept every extremely large loss as an inevitable part of the game. So we hope that those who held X Financial (NYSE:XYF) during the last year don't lose the lesson, in addition to the 80% hit to the value of their shares. That'd be a striking reminder about the importance of diversification. Because X Financial hasn't been listed for many years, the market is still learning about how the business performs. Furthermore, it's down 41% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

View our latest analysis for X Financial

X Financial wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. 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.

In just one year X Financial saw its revenue fall by 26%. That's not what investors generally want to see. The share price fall of 80% in a year tells the story. That's a stern reminder that profitless companies need to grow the top line, at the very least. But markets do over-react, so there opportunity for investors who are willing to take the time to dig deeper and understand the business.

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

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

A Different Perspective

While X Financial shareholders are down 80% for the year (even including dividends), the market itself is up 15%. While the aim is to do better than that, it's worth recalling that even great long-term investments sometimes underperform for a year or more. With the stock down 41% over the last three months, the market doesn't seem to believe that the company has solved all its problems. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. 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 4 warning signs for X Financial you should be aware of.

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 US exchanges.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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