Yahoo Finance Imagine Owning 500.com (NYSE:WBAI) And Trying To Stomach The 74% Share Price Drop
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We're definitely into long term investing, but some companies are simply bad investments over any time frame. We really hate to see fellow investors lose their hard-earned money. For example, we sympathize with anyone who was caught holding 500.com Limited (NYSE:WBAI) during the five years that saw its share price drop a whopping 74%. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 45%. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 43% in the last three months.
See our latest analysis for 500.com
Given that 500.com didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.
Over half a decade 500.com reduced its trailing twelve month revenue by 42% for each year. That's definitely a weaker result than most pre-profit companies report. So it's not that strange that the share price dropped 24% per year in that period. This kind of price performance makes us very wary, especially when combined with falling revenue. Of course, the poor performance could mean the market has been too severe selling down. That can happen.
The chart below shows how revenue and earnings have changed with time, (if you click on the chart you can see the actual values).
Take a more thorough look at 500.com's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.
A Different Perspective
500.com shareholders are down 45% for the year, but the market itself is up 2.8%. 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 24% 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. You might want to assess this data-rich visualization of its earnings, revenue and cash flow.
But note: 500.com may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).
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.
