Alto Ingredients' (NASDAQ:ALTO) investors will be pleased with their strong 103% return over the last five years

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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%. For example, the Alto Ingredients, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTO) share price has soared 103% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. We note the stock price is up 4.9% in the last seven days.

So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 5 years and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Alto Ingredients

Because Alto Ingredients 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. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

Over the last half decade Alto Ingredients' revenue has actually been trending down at about 4.6% per year. Given that scenario, we wouldn't have expected the share price to rise 15% per year, but that's what it did. It's a good reminder that expectations about the future, not the past history, always impact share prices. Still, this situation makes us a little wary of the stock.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth
earnings-and-revenue-growth

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. You can see what analysts are predicting for Alto Ingredients in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

Alto Ingredients provided a TSR of 17% over the last twelve months. But that was short of the market average. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 15% per year over five year. This could indicate that the company is winning over new investors, as it pursues its strategy. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Alto Ingredients better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Alto Ingredients is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , 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.

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