SurgePays (NASDAQ:SURG) adds US$7.6m to market cap in the past 7 days, though investors from five years ago are still down 69%

SurgePays, Inc. (NASDAQ:SURG) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 46% in the last quarter. But don't envy holders -- looking back over 5 years the returns have been really bad. Indeed, the share price is down 69% in the period. So we're not so sure if the recent bounce should be celebrated. But it could be that the fall was overdone.

On a more encouraging note the company has added US$7.6m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let's see if we can determine what's driven the five-year loss for shareholders.

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SurgePays wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last half decade, SurgePays saw its revenue increase by 16% per year. That's better than most loss-making companies. In contrast, the share price is has averaged a loss of 11% per year - that's quite disappointing. This could mean high expectations have been tempered, potentially because investors are looking to the bottom line. Given the revenue growth we'd consider the stock to be quite an interesting prospect if the company has a clear path to profitability.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

If you are thinking of buying or selling SurgePays stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that SurgePays shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 23% over the last year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 11% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand SurgePays better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for SurgePays that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course SurgePays may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

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.