Further weakness as Actinogen Medical (ASX:ACW) drops 16% this week, taking three-year losses to 77%

Actinogen Medical Limited (ASX:ACW) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 13% in the last month. But only the myopic could ignore the astounding decline over three years. To wit, the share price sky-dived 78% in that time. So it's about time shareholders saw some gains. The thing to think about is whether the business has really turned around.

After losing 16% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

See our latest analysis for Actinogen Medical

Actinogen Medical 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. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope 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 three years, Actinogen Medical saw its revenue grow by 47% per year, compound. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. So on the face of it we're really surprised to see the share price down 21% a year in the same time period. The share price makes us wonder if there is an issue with profitability. Ultimately, revenue growth doesn't amount to much if the business can't scale well. If the company is low on cash, it may have to raise capital soon.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

It's good to see that there was some significant insider buying in the last three months. That's a positive. On the other hand, we think the revenue and earnings trends are much more meaningful measures of the business. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Actinogen Medical

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Actinogen Medical has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 20% in the last twelve months. That certainly beats the loss of about 3% per year over the last half decade. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Actinogen Medical better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Actinogen Medical (1 is potentially serious!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Actinogen Medical is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find lesser know companies 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 Australian 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.