Acadia Healthcare Company (NASDAQ:ACHC) delivers shareholders stellar 25% CAGR over 5 years, surging 7.3% in the last week alone

The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But on the bright side, you can make far more than 100% on a really good stock. Long term Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACHC) shareholders would be well aware of this, since the stock is up 202% in five years. It's also good to see the share price up 26% over the last quarter. The company reported its financial results recently; you can catch up on the latest numbers by reading our company report.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Acadia Healthcare Company

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

We know that Acadia Healthcare Company has been profitable in the past. However, it made a loss in the last twelve months, suggesting profit may be an unreliable metric at this stage. So it might be better to look at other metrics to try to understand the share price.

In contrast revenue growth of 7.2% per year is probably viewed as evidence that Acadia Healthcare Company is growing, a real positive. It's quite possible that management are prioritizing revenue growth over EPS growth at the moment.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

Acadia Healthcare Company is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Acadia Healthcare Company will earn in the future (free analyst consensus estimates)

A Different Perspective

Acadia Healthcare Company provided a TSR of 5.4% over the last twelve months. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. It's probably a good sign that the company has an even better long term track record, having provided shareholders with an annual TSR of 25% over five years. It's quite possible the business continues to execute with prowess, even as the share price gains are slowing. 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. Even so, be aware that Acadia Healthcare Company is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

But note: Acadia Healthcare Company may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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.