Did You Manage To Avoid Nautilus's (NYSE:NLS) Devastating 94% Share Price Drop?

As an investor, mistakes are inevitable. But really big losses can really drag down an overall portfolio. So consider, for a moment, the misfortune of Nautilus, Inc. (NYSE:NLS) investors who have held the stock for three years as it declined a whopping 94%. That'd be enough to cause even the strongest minds some disquiet. The more recent news is of little comfort, with the share price down 91% in a year. Furthermore, it's down 57% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

While a drop like that is definitely a body blow, money isn't as important as health and happiness.

View our latest analysis for Nautilus

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

Nautilus saw its share price decline over the three years in which its EPS also dropped, falling to a loss. Due to the loss, it's not easy to use EPS as a reliable guide to the business. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

NYSE:NLS Past and Future Earnings, August 22nd 2019
NYSE:NLS Past and Future Earnings, August 22nd 2019

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Nautilus's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 2.4% in the last year, Nautilus shareholders lost 91%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 37% over the last half decade. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

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 US exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.

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