Long term investing can be life changing when you buy and hold the truly great businesses. And we've seen some truly amazing gains over the years. Don't believe it? Then look at the Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITCI) share price. It's 798% higher than it was five years ago. This just goes to show the value creation that some businesses can achieve. Meanwhile the share price is 1.3% higher than it was a week ago. Anyone who held for that rewarding ride would probably be keen to talk about it.

So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

Given that Intra-Cellular Therapies 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. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. 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 Intra-Cellular Therapies saw its revenue grow at 67% per year. Even measured against other revenue-focussed companies, that's a good result. Fortunately, the market has not missed this, and has pushed the share price up by 55% per year in that time. Despite the strong run, top performers like Intra-Cellular Therapies have been known to go on winning for decades. So we'd recommend you take a closer look at this one, but keep in mind the market seems optimistic.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

Intra-Cellular Therapies is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Intra-Cellular Therapies will earn in the future (free analyst consensus estimates)

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Intra-Cellular Therapies shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 40% over the last year. Having said that, the five-year TSR of 55% a year, is even better. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Intra-Cellular Therapies better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Intra-Cellular Therapies you should know about.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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.