It's easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. But if you buy individual stocks, you can do both better or worse than that. That downside risk was realized by Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTLA) shareholders over the last year, as the share price declined 45%. That contrasts poorly with the market return of 16%. Longer term investors have fared much better, since the share price is up 9.2% in three years. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 38% in the last three months.

With the stock having lost 6.3% in the past week, it's worth taking a look at business performance and seeing if there's any red flags.

See our latest analysis for Intellia Therapeutics

Given that Intellia Therapeutics didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect 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.

Intellia Therapeutics grew its revenue by 17% over the last year. That's definitely a respectable growth rate. Meanwhile, the share price is down 45% over twelve months, which is disappointing given the progress made. You might even wonder if the share price was previously over-hyped. However, that's in the past now, and it's the future that matters most.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

Intellia Therapeutics is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

Intellia Therapeutics shareholders are down 45% for the year, but the market itself is up 16%. 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 6%, 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. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Even so, be aware that Intellia Therapeutics is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.