Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 30% in the last quarter. But that doesn't help the fact that the three year return is less impressive. Truth be told the share price declined 34% in three years and that return, Dear Reader, falls short of what you could have got from passive investing with an index fund.

The recent uptick of 4.4% could be a positive sign of things to come, so let's take a look at historical fundamentals.

Because Amicus Therapeutics 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. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last three years, Amicus Therapeutics saw its revenue grow by 12% per year, compound. That's a pretty good rate of top-line growth. Shareholders have seen the share price fall at 10% per year, for three years. This implies the market had higher expectations of Amicus Therapeutics. 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).

Amicus Therapeutics is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

A Different Perspective

Amicus Therapeutics provided a TSR of 3.2% over the last twelve months. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. On the bright side, that's still a gain, and it's actually better than the average return of 3% over half a decade It is possible that returns will improve along with the business fundamentals. 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. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Amicus Therapeutics .

But note: Amicus Therapeutics may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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.