For many, the main point of investing in the stock market is to achieve spectacular returns. While not every stock performs well, when investors win, they can win big. To wit, the CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) share price has soared 554% over five years. This just goes to show the value creation that some businesses can achieve. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 33% gain in the last three months. We love happy stories like this one. The company should be really proud of that performance!

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

While CrowdStrike Holdings made a small profit, in the last year, we think that the market is probably more focussed on the top line growth at the moment. Generally speaking, we'd consider a stock like this alongside loss-making companies, simply because the quantum of the profit is so low. For shareholders to have confidence a company will grow profits significantly, it must grow revenue.

In the last 5 years CrowdStrike Holdings saw its revenue grow at 39% per year. That's well above most pre-profit companies. Arguably, this is well and truly reflected in the strong share price gain of 46%(per year) over the same period. Despite the strong run, top performers like CrowdStrike Holdings 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 image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

CrowdStrike Holdings is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. 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

It's good to see that CrowdStrike Holdings has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 60% in the last twelve months. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 46% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with CrowdStrike Holdings , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of undervalued small caps 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.