Even after rising 3.9% this past week, PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) shareholders are still down 59% over the past three years

While not a mind-blowing move, it is good to see that the PENN Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN) share price has gained 16% in the last three months. But over the last three years we've seen a quite serious decline. In that time, the share price dropped 59%. So it's good to see it climbing back up. After all, could be that the fall was overdone.

The recent uptick of 3.9% could be a positive sign of things to come, so let's take a look at historical fundamentals.

See our latest analysis for PENN Entertainment

PENN Entertainment isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last three years, PENN Entertainment saw its revenue grow by 3.1% per year, compound. Given it's losing money in pursuit of growth, we are not really impressed with that. This uninspiring revenue growth has no doubt helped send the share price lower; it dropped 17% during the period. When a stock falls hard like this, some investors like to add the company to a watchlist (in case the business recovers, longer term). After all, growing a business isn't easy, and the process will not always be smooth.

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

It's probably worth noting we've seen significant insider buying in the last quarter, which we consider a positive. On the other hand, we think the revenue and earnings trends are much more meaningful measures of the business. You can see what analysts are predicting for PENN Entertainment in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

PENN Entertainment shareholders are down 7.7% for the year, but the market itself is up 36%. 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. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 1.9% per year over five years. 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. Investors who like to make money usually check up on insider purchases, such as the price paid, and total amount bought. You can find out about the insider purchases of PENN Entertainment by clicking this link.

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of undervalued small cap companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American 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.