While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see the Empire Energy Group Limited (ASX:EEG) share price up 11% in a single quarter. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last three years have been less than pleasing. Truth be told the share price declined 41% in three years and that return, Dear Reader, falls short of what you could have got from passive investing with an index fund.

Now let's have a look at the company's fundamentals, and see if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

See our latest analysis for Empire Energy Group

Because Empire Energy Group made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. 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 three years, Empire Energy Group saw its revenue grow by 13% per year, compound. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. Shareholders have endured a share price decline of 12% per year. So the market has definitely lost some love for the stock. However, that's in the past now, and it's the future is more important - and the future looks brighter (based on revenue, anyway).

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

This free interactive report on Empire Energy Group's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Empire Energy Group shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 26% over the last year. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 3%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Empire Energy Group better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Empire Energy Group (including 1 which is significant) .

We will like Empire Energy Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.