It's not possible to invest over long periods without making some bad investments. But really big losses can really drag down an overall portfolio. So spare a thought for the long term shareholders of Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTLA); the share price is down a whopping 86% in the last three years. That might cause some serious doubts about the merits of the initial decision to buy the stock, to put it mildly. And the ride hasn't got any smoother in recent times over the last year, with the price 36% lower in that time. Furthermore, it's down 19% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway.

Given the past week has been tough on shareholders, let's investigate the fundamentals and see what we can learn.

View our latest analysis for Intellia Therapeutics

Intellia Therapeutics wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, 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. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually desire strong revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

Over three years, Intellia Therapeutics grew revenue at 11% per year. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. So it's hard to believe the share price decline of 23% per year is due to the revenue. More likely, the market was spooked by the cost of that revenue. If you buy into companies that lose money then you always risk losing money yourself. Just don't lose the lesson.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

Intellia Therapeutics is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Intellia Therapeutics will earn in the future (free analyst consensus estimates)

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 36% in the last year, Intellia Therapeutics shareholders lost 36%. 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. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 12% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Intellia Therapeutics better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Intellia Therapeutics .