Yahoo Finance Investors in Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) have made a impressive return of 231% over the past five years
When you buy shares in a company, it's worth keeping in mind the possibility that it could fail, and you could lose your money. But on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. For example, the Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) share price has soared 231% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. The last week saw the share price soften some 2.1%.
So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.
Check out our latest analysis for Novanta
In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. 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.
During five years of share price growth, Novanta achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 0.7% per year. This EPS growth is lower than the 27% average annual increase in the share price. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. And that's hardly shocking given the track record of growth. This optimism is visible in its fairly high P/E ratio of 73.93.
You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
We know that Novanta has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? You could check out this free report showing analyst revenue forecasts.
A Different Perspective
While it's never nice to take a loss, Novanta shareholders can take comfort that their trailing twelve month loss of 11% wasn't as bad as the market loss of around 16%. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 27%, each year, over five years. It could be that the business is just facing some short term problems, but shareholders should keep a close eye on the fundamentals. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Novanta better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Novanta (1 doesn't sit too well with us) that you should be aware of.
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.
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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.
