Further weakness as OPKO Health (NASDAQ:OPK) drops 4.9% this week, taking three-year losses to 60%

Investing in stocks inevitably means buying into some companies that perform poorly. But long term OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK) shareholders have had a particularly rough ride in the last three year. So they might be feeling emotional about the 60% share price collapse, in that time.

After losing 4.9% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

View our latest analysis for OPKO Health

OPKO Health 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. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last three years OPKO Health saw its revenue shrink by 35% per year. That means its revenue trend is very weak compared to other loss making companies. Arguably, the market has responded appropriately to this business performance by sending the share price down 17% (annualized) in the same time period. Bagholders or 'baggies' are people who buy more of a stock as the price collapses. They are then left 'holding the bag' if the shares turn out to be worthless. It could be a while before the company repays long suffering shareholders with share price gains.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

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 OPKO Health

A Different Perspective

OPKO Health shareholders are down 4.9% for the year, but the market itself is up 34%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 0.6% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for OPKO Health you should be aware of.

OPKO Health 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 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.