Investing in Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) five years ago would have delivered you a 209% gain

The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. Long term Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) shareholders would be well aware of this, since the stock is up 209% in five years. It's also good to see the share price up 13% over the last quarter.

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

View our latest analysis for Datadog

Given that Datadog only made minimal earnings in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue to gauge its business development. Generally speaking, we'd consider a stock like this alongside loss-making companies, simply because the quantum of the profit is so low. For shareholders to have confidence a company will grow profits significantly, it must grow revenue.

For the last half decade, Datadog can boast revenue growth at a rate of 37% per year. Even measured against other revenue-focussed companies, that's a good result. Meanwhile, its share price performance certainly reflects the strong growth, given the share price grew at 25% per year, compound, during the period. This suggests the market has well and truly recognized the progress the business has made. To our minds that makes Datadog worth investigating - it may have its best days ahead.

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

Datadog is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

A Different Perspective

Datadog shareholders gained a total return of 10% during the year. But that return falls short of the market. On the bright side, the longer term returns (running at about 25% a year, over half a decade) look better. It may well be that this is a business worth popping on the watching, given the continuing positive reception, over time, from the market. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Datadog better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Datadog is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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.