Positive earnings growth hasn't been enough to get BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) shareholders a favorable return over the last year

This week we saw the BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) share price climb by 17%. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last year have been less than pleasing. The cold reality is that the stock has dropped 18% in one year, under-performing the market.

The recent uptick of 17% could be a positive sign of things to come, so let's take a lot at historical fundamentals.

View our latest analysis for BioNTech

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

BioNTech stole the show with its EPS rocketing, in the last year. We don't think the growth guide to the sustainable growth rate in this case, but we do think this sort of increase is impressive. As you can imagine, the share price action therefore perturbs us. Some different data might shed some more light on the situation.

BioNTech's revenue is actually up 831% over the last year. Since the fundamental metrics don't readily explain the share price drop, there might be an opportunity if the market has overreacted.

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

BioNTech is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

We doubt BioNTech shareholders are happy with the loss of 18% over twelve months. That falls short of the market, which lost 9.0%. That's disappointing, but it's worth keeping in mind that the market-wide selling wouldn't have helped. It's great to see a nice little 2.8% rebound in the last three months. Let's just hope this isn't the widely-feared 'dead cat bounce' (which would indicate further declines to come). 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. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for BioNTech that you should be aware of before investing here.

We will like BioNTech better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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