Investors Who Bought Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) Shares A Year Ago Are Now Down 58%
Even the best stock pickers will make plenty of bad investments. Anyone who held Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) over the last year knows what a loser feels like. The share price has slid 58% in that time. Bloom Energy hasn't been listed for long, so although we're wary of recent listings that perform poorly, it may still prove itself with time. Furthermore, it's down 15% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.
View our latest analysis for Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy isn't a profitable company, so 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 expect to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.
Bloom Energy grew its revenue by 63% over the last year. That's a strong result which is better than most other loss making companies. In contrast the share price is down 58% over twelve months. Yes, the market can be a fickle mistress. Typically a growth stock like this will be volatile, with some shareholders concerned about the red ink on the bottom line (that is, the losses). Generally speaking investors would consider a stock like this less risky once it turns a profit. But when do you think that will happen?
You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. You can see what analysts are predicting for Bloom Energy in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.
A Different Perspective
While Bloom Energy shareholders are down 58% for the year, the market itself is up 5.5%. While the aim is to do better than that, it's worth recalling that even great long-term investments sometimes underperform for a year or more. With the stock down 15% over the last three months, the market doesn't seem to believe that the company has solved all its problems. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. If you want to research this stock further, the data on insider buying is an obvious place to start. You can click here to see who has been buying shares - and the price they paid.
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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