Even after rising 4.0% this past week, Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) shareholders are still down 48% over the past five years

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 72% in the last quarter. But if you look at the last five years the returns have not been good. In fact, the share price is down 48%, which falls well short of the return you could get by buying an index fund.

The recent uptick of 4.0% could be a positive sign of things to come, so let's take a look at historical fundamentals.

View our latest analysis for Elanco Animal Health

Elanco Animal 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 expect to see good revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.

Over five years, Elanco Animal Health grew its revenue at 11% per year. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. Shareholders have seen the share price fall at 8% per year, for five years: a poor performance. Those who bought back then clearly believed in stronger growth - and maybe even profits. The lesson is that if you buy shares in a money losing company you could end up losing money.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

Elanco Animal Health shareholders are up 8.0% for the year. But that return falls short of the market. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 8% per year, over five years. It could well be that the business is stabilizing. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Elanco Animal Health better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Elanco Animal Health you should know about.

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies 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.