Qoria Limited (ASX:QOR) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 23% in the last quarter. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last three years have been less than pleasing. In fact, the share price is down 42% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return.

On a more encouraging note the company has added AU$39m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let's see if we can determine what's driven the three-year loss for shareholders.

View our latest analysis for Qoria

Qoria isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

Over three years, Qoria grew revenue at 80% per year. That is faster than most pre-profit companies. While its revenue increased, the share price dropped at a rate of 12% per year. That seems like an unlucky result for holders. It's possible that the prior share price assumed unrealistically high future growth. Before considering a purchase, investors should consider how quickly expenses are growing, relative to revenue.

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

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Qoria

A Different Perspective

Investors in Qoria had a tough year, with a total loss of 3.6%, against a market gain of about 10%. 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. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 3%, each year, over five years. 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 Qoria better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Qoria you should be aware of, and 1 of them is potentially serious.

Qoria is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.