If You Had Bought Farmer Bros (NASDAQ:FARM) Shares A Year Ago You'd Have Earned 91% Returns

Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) shareholders have seen the share price descend 22% over the month. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last year have been pleasing. Looking at the full year, the company has easily bested an index fund by gaining 91%.

View our latest analysis for Farmer Bros

Farmer Bros isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. 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.

In the last year Farmer Bros saw its revenue shrink by 33%. The stock is up 91% in that time, a fine performance given the revenue drop. We can correlate the share price rise with revenue or profit growth, but it seems the market had previously expected weaker results, and sentiment around the stock is improving.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth
earnings-and-revenue-growth

This free interactive report on Farmer Bros' balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Farmer Bros shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 91% over one year. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 11% per year over five years. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. 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 learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Farmer Bros (including 1 which can't be ignored) .

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing 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 US exchanges.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.

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