We think intelligent long term investing is the way to go. But that doesn't mean long term investors can avoid big losses. For example the UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ:URGN) share price dropped 61% over five years. We certainly feel for shareholders who bought near the top. More recently, the share price has dropped a further 24% in a month.

Given the past week has been tough on shareholders, let's investigate the fundamentals and see what we can learn.

Given that UroGen Pharma 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. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. 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, UroGen Pharma saw its revenue increase by 62% per year. That's better than most loss-making companies. In contrast, the share price is has averaged a loss of 10% per year - that's quite disappointing. It's safe to say investor expectations are more grounded now. Given the revenue growth we'd consider the stock to be quite an interesting prospect if the company has a clear path to profitability.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that UroGen Pharma shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 54% over the last year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 10% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand UroGen Pharma better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that UroGen Pharma is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us...

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