Yahoo Finance Reflecting on Intrepid Potash's (NYSE:IPI) Share Price Returns Over The Last Five Years
Long term investing works well, but it doesn't always work for each individual stock. We don't wish catastrophic capital loss on anyone. Anyone who held Intrepid Potash, Inc. (NYSE:IPI) for five years would be nursing their metaphorical wounds since the share price dropped 85% in that time. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 72%. On top of that, the share price is down 15% in the last week.
We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway.
See our latest analysis for Intrepid Potash
Given that Intrepid Potash 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. 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.
In the last five years Intrepid Potash saw its revenue shrink by 10% per year. That's definitely a weaker result than most pre-profit companies report. So it's not that strange that the share price dropped 13% per year in that period. We don't think this is a particularly promising picture. Ironically, that behavior could create an opportunity for the contrarian investor - but only if there are good reasons to predict a brighter future.
The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).
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. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts
A Different Perspective
Intrepid Potash shareholders are down 72% for the year, but the market itself is up 13%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 13% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. 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. Take risks, for example - Intrepid Potash has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.
Intrepid Potash is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
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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