Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) shareholders have endured a 54% loss from investing in the stock three years ago

If you love investing in stocks you're bound to buy some losers. But the long term shareholders of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) have had an unfortunate run in the last three years. Unfortunately, they have held through a 54% decline in the share price in that time.

So let's have a look and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

See our latest analysis for Bio-Rad Laboratories

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 Bio-Rad Laboratories 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. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time.

Arguably the revenue decline of 4.4% per year has people thinking Bio-Rad Laboratories is shrinking. After all, if revenue keeps shrinking, it may be difficult to find earnings growth in the future.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

This free interactive report on Bio-Rad Laboratories' balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Bio-Rad Laboratories shareholders are down 4.0% for the year, but the market itself is up 35%. 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 0.5% 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. If you would like to research Bio-Rad Laboratories in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of undervalued small caps 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.