A Look At ProQR Therapeutics' (NASDAQ:PRQR) Share Price Returns

Even the best stock pickers will make plenty of bad investments. Unfortunately, shareholders of ProQR Therapeutics N.V. (NASDAQ:PRQR) have suffered share price declines over the last year. The share price is down a hefty 53% in that time. Longer term investors have fared much better, since the share price is up 25% in three years. Furthermore, it's down 33% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. We note that the company has reported results fairly recently; and the market is hardly delighted. You can check out the latest numbers in our company report.

Check out our latest analysis for ProQR Therapeutics

With just €1,212,000 worth of revenue in twelve months, we don't think the market considers ProQR Therapeutics to have proven its business plan. We can't help wondering why it's publicly listed so early in its journey. Are venture capitalists not interested? As a result, we think it's unlikely shareholders are paying much attention to current revenue, but rather speculating on growth in the years to come. For example, they may be hoping that ProQR Therapeutics comes up with a great new product, before it runs out of money.

We think companies that have neither significant revenues nor profits are pretty high risk. You should be aware that there is always a chance that this sort of company will need to issue more shares to raise money to continue pursuing its business plan. While some such companies go on to make revenue, profits, and generate value, others get hyped up by hopeful naifs before eventually going bankrupt. ProQR Therapeutics has already given some investors a taste of the bitter losses that high risk investing can cause.

When it reported in September 2020 ProQR Therapeutics had minimal cash in excess of all liabilities consider its expenditure: just €47m to be specific. So if it hasn't remedied the situation already, it will almost certainly have to raise more capital soon. With that in mind, you can understand why the share price dropped 53% in the last year. The image below shows how ProQR Therapeutics' balance sheet has changed over time; if you want to see the precise values, simply click on the image.

In reality it's hard to have much certainty when valuing a business that has neither revenue or profit. Would it bother you if insiders were selling the stock? I'd like that just about as much as I like to drink milk and fruit juice mixed together. You can click here to see if there are insiders selling.

A Different Perspective

ProQR Therapeutics shareholders are down 53% for the year, but the market itself is up 24%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 8% 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. 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. To that end, you should be aware of the 4 warning signs we've spotted with ProQR Therapeutics .

We will like ProQR Therapeutics 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. 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.
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