While not a mind-blowing move, it is good to see that the Sientra, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIEN) share price has gained 26% in the last three months. But that’s not enough to compensate for the decline over the last twelve months. Like an arid lake in a warming world, shareholder value has evaporated, with the share price down 52% in that time. So the bounce should be viewed in that context. You could argue that the sell-off was too severe.
View our latest analysis for Sientra
Because Sientra is loss-making, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. 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.
In the last year Sientra saw its revenue grow by 32%. That’s definitely a respectable growth rate. Unfortunately it seems investors wanted more, because the share price is down 52% in that time. It may well be that the business remains approximately on track, but its revenue growth has simply been delayed. For us it’s important to consider when you think a company will become profitable, if you’re basing your valuation on revenue.
You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).
We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. You can see what analysts are predicting for Sientra in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.
A Different Perspective
Sientra shareholders are down 52% for the year, but the market itself is up 21%. 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 12% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. If you want to research this stock further, the data on insider buying is an obvious place to start. You can click here to see who has been buying shares – and the price they paid.
Sientra 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.
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