Did Business Growth Power Arena Pharmaceuticals's (NASDAQ:ARNA) Share Price Gain of 226%?

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It might seem bad, but the worst that can happen when you buy a stock (without leverage) is that its share price goes to zero. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. For instance the Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) share price is 226% higher than it was three years ago. How nice for those who held the stock! It's even up 7.7% in the last week.

View our latest analysis for Arena Pharmaceuticals

Given that Arena Pharmaceuticals 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 fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Arena Pharmaceuticals actually saw its revenue drop by 17% per year over three years. So the share price gain of 48% per year is quite surprising. It's fair to say shareholders are definitely counting on a bright future.

The chart below shows how revenue and earnings have changed with time, (if you click on the chart you can see the actual values).

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Arena Pharmaceuticals shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 15% over one year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 4.9% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. You might want to assess this data-rich visualization of its earnings, revenue and cash flow.

If you are like me, then you will 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.

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 [email protected]. 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.