The 23% return this week takes Kraken Robotics' (CVE:PNG) shareholders five-year gains to 27%

If you buy and hold a stock for many years, you'd hope to be making a profit. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Kraken Robotics Inc. (CVE:PNG) share price is up 27% in the last five years, that's less than the market return. Zooming in, the stock is up a respectable 15% in the last year.

Since it's been a strong week for Kraken Robotics shareholders, let's have a look at trend of the longer term fundamentals.

Check out our latest analysis for Kraken Robotics

Because Kraken Robotics made a loss in the last twelve months, 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. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last 5 years Kraken Robotics saw its revenue grow at 38% per year. That's well above most pre-profit companies. While long-term shareholders have made money, the 5% per year gain over five years fall short of the market return. That's surprising given the strong revenue growth. It could be that the stock was previously over-priced - but if you're looking for underappreciated growth stocks, these numbers indicate that there might be an opportunity here.

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

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. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Kraken Robotics will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Kraken Robotics shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 15% over one year. That's better than the annualised return of 5% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. 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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Kraken Robotics you should know about.

Kraken Robotics 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 Canadian 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.