Should Liquidity Services (NASDAQ:LQDT) Be Disappointed With Their 56% Profit?

By buying an index fund, you can roughly match the market return with ease. But if you buy good businesses at attractive prices, your portfolio returns could exceed the average market return. For example, Liquidity Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:LQDT) shareholders have seen the share price rise 56% over three years, well in excess of the market return (30%, not including dividends). However, more recent returns haven't been as impressive as that, with the stock returning just 31% in the last year.

See our latest analysis for Liquidity Services

Because Liquidity Services made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

Liquidity Services actually saw its revenue drop by 9.2% per year over three years. The revenue growth might be lacking but the share price has gained 16% each year in that time. Unless the company is going to make profits soon, we would be pretty cautious about it.

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

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Liquidity Services shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 31% over the last year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 0.5% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. 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 1 warning sign for Liquidity Services that you should be aware of before investing here.

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 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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