It hasn't been the best quarter for Exro Technologies Inc. (TSE:EXRO) shareholders, since the share price has fallen 26% in that time. But in stark contrast, the returns over the last half decade have impressed. Indeed, the share price is up an impressive 178% in that time. We think it's more important to dwell on the long term returns than the short term returns. Ultimately business performance will determine whether the stock price continues the positive long term trend. While the long term returns are impressive, we do have some sympathy for those who bought more recently, given the 71% drop, in the last year.

Since the stock has added CA$35m to its market cap in the past week alone, let's see if underlying performance has been driving long-term returns.

View our latest analysis for Exro Technologies

Exro Technologies 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. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one would hope for good top-line growth to make up for the lack of earnings.

In the last 5 years Exro Technologies saw its revenue grow at 91% per year. Even measured against other revenue-focussed companies, that's a good result. So it's not entirely surprising that the share price reflected this performance by increasing at a rate of 23% per year, in that time. So it seems likely that buyers have paid attention to the strong revenue growth. Exro Technologies seems like a high growth stock - so growth investors might want to add it to their watchlist.

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

You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

A Different Perspective

Exro Technologies shareholders are down 71% for the year, but the market itself is up 8.8%. 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 23%, 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 Exro Technologies better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Exro Technologies is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those shouldn't be ignored...