Nutriband Inc. ( NASDAQ:NTRB ) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 72% in the last quarter. But spare a thought for the long term holders, who have held the stock as it bled value over the last five years. Like a ship taking on water, the share price has sunk 80% in that time. The stock was traded OTC (over the counter) until October 2021 where it then listed on the NASDAQ.

The recent bounce might mean the long decline is over, but we are not confident. The million dollar question is whether the company can justify a long term recovery. If the past week is anything to go by, investor sentiment for Nutriband isn't positive, so let's see if there's a mismatch between fundamentals and the share price.

Check out our latest analysis for Nutriband

Nutriband isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually desire strong 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.

In the last half decade, Nutriband saw its revenue increase by 34% per year. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. So it's not at all clear to us why the share price sunk 12% throughout that time. You'd have to assume the market is worried that profits won't come soon enough. The company is nearing an NDA submission in 2025 which, if successful, could impact its revenue positively.

While there might be an opportunity here, you'd want to take a close look at the balance sheet strength.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Nutriband's earnings, revenue and cash flow .

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Nutriband shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 49% over one year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 12% 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. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 5 warning signs for Nutriband (of which 2 are potentially serious!) you should know about.