Investors in Macro Enterprises (CVE:MCR) have made a return of 29% over the past five years

The main point of investing for the long term is to make money. Furthermore, you'd generally like to see the share price rise faster than the market. But Macro Enterprises Inc. (CVE:MCR) has fallen short of that second goal, with a share price rise of 29% over five years, which is below the market return. Looking at the last year alone, the stock is up 5.9%.

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

See our latest analysis for Macro Enterprises

Because Macro Enterprises 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. 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.

For the last half decade, Macro Enterprises can boast revenue growth at a rate of 32% per year. Even measured against other revenue-focussed companies, that's a good result. It's nice to see shareholders have made a profit, but the gain of 5% over the period isn't that impressive compared to the overall market. That's surprising given the strong revenue growth. Arguably this falls in a potential sweet spot - modest share price gains but good top line growth over the long term justifies investigation, in our book.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth

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

A Different Perspective

Macro Enterprises shareholders gained a total return of 5.9% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 5% per year over five year. This suggests the company might be improving over time. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Macro Enterprises better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Macro Enterprises (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.

We will like Macro Enterprises better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on CA 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.